UC-NRLF 


B 


mi  linn  mil  inn  mi  i 
3    DSD    3ED 


BLACK  DIAMONDS, 


BLACK  DIAMONDS 


GATHERED    IN    THE 


DARKEY  HOMES  OF  THE  SOUTH, 


EDWARD    A.    POLLARD, 


OF       VIRGINIA. 


PUDNEY    &    RUSSELL,    PUBLISHERS, 

No.    79    JOHN -STREET. 

1859. 


£44? 


Entered  according  to  Act  of  Congress,  in  the  year  1853, 
BY    PUDN-EY    &    RUSSELL, 

In  the  Clerk's  Office  of  the  District  Court  of  the  United  States  for  the 
Southern  District  of  New-York. 


PREFATORY 


THE  writer  of  these  simple  pages  has  pre 
pared  them  for  publication  from  a  collection  of 
hasty  and  unstudied  letters,  on  the  subject  of 
slave  life  in  the  South,  which  were  originally 
addressed  to  DAVID  M.  CLARKSON,  Esq.,  "  Glen- 
brook,"  Newburgh,  N.  Y.,  a  gentleman  whose 
friendship  is  one  among  those  in  the  North  that 
he  has  greatly  prized,  and  whose  cultivated 
patriotism  is  of  that  broad  and  noble  type  that 
he  has  ever  fervently  admired.  The  letters 
are  not  elaborated :  the  author  wrote  them  from 
what  he  found  in  his  heart.  Whether  he  shall 
add  still  further  to  them  will  depend  upon  the 
reception  by  the  public  of  this  humble  offering. 


M32985 


"  SLAVE  LIFE  IN  THE  SOUTH."* 

IN  general  we  are  strongly  averse  to  mixing  up  special  questions  in 
ethics  or  in  politics  with  what  is  called  polite  literature.  Artistically 
viewed,  we  doubt  whether  the  mixture  is  ever  allowable.  Even  satiric 
poetry,  we  take  it,  forms  no  exception  to  the  rule  ;  for  it  is  the  province 
of  that  species  of  literature  to  attack  wickedness  and  folly  from  the 
standpoint  of  admitted  maxims  of  morality  and  wisdom,  not  to  agitate 
debatable  or  unsettled  problems.  The  introduction  into  the  novel  or 
poem  of  subjects  pertaining  to  strict  polemics  or  to  severe  philosophy, 
as  the  main  purpose  of  the  work,  produces  an  incongruous  association, 
which  is  never  agreeable  and  is  often  disgusting.  Who  wants  to  read  a 
novel  designed  to  illustrate  the  beauties  of  free  trade  or  a  protective 
tariff?  "Who  does  read  Montgomery's  maudlin  poem,  or  Longfellow's 
sentimental  cant  in  rhyme,  on  the  awful  sin  of  negro  slavery  ?  Since 
the  publication  of  Mrs.  Stowe's  "  Uncle  Torn's  Cabin,"  which  led  the 
van  of  a  frightful  procession  of  books  of  a  similar  order  on  both  sides 
of  the  slavery  question,  every  reader  of  experience,  taste,  and  discrimi 
nation,  is  predisposed  to  turn  with  loathing  from  any  issue  from  the 
press  whose  title  page  has  a  perceptible  squinting  toward  the  vexed 
and  vexatious  subject.  He  is  inclined  to  avoid  it  as  a  premeditated 
bore  and  deliberate  swindle — a  delusion  and  a  snare — a  cunning 
"  dodge,"  by  which  he  may  be  made  the  victim  of  self-inflicted  twaddle. 
Of  course  there  is  frequently  much  matter  of  pith  and  moment  in  the 
numerous  books  in  which  the  discussion  of  the  slavery  question,  in  all 
or  a  few  of  its  aspects,  is  thrown  into  the  shape  of  stories  or  sketches. 
Indeed,  there  are  some  that  touch  the  subject  in  a  way  so  incidental 
and  natural,  and  with  so  little  of  a  partisan  or  disputatious  spirit,  that 
if  the  predisposition  against  them  be  once  overcome,  they  may  be  read 
with  equal  entertainment  and  instruction. 

*  From  the  New  Orleans  Delta,  Editorial. 


Among  the  last  productions  to  which  we  allude,  we  unhesitatingly 
place  a  small  and  unpretending  volume,  being  a  series  of  short  sketches 
of  slave  life  in  the  South,  in  the  form  of  letters  originally  addressed  Ly 
the  author,  Edward  A.  Pollard,  of  Washington  City,  to  his  friend, 
David  M.  Clarkson,  of  Newburgh,  New  York. 

The  author  appears  to  be  a  thorough  Southerner  in  education, 
opinion,  sympathy,  and  attachment;  yet,  his  letters  are  remarkably 
free  from  sectional  prejudice  and  acerbity,  and,  in  truth,  contain  sketches 
that  are  amongst  the  moat  catholic,  ind  tolerant,  and  genial,  we  ever  had 
occasion  to  peruse.  He  would  seem  to  have  travelled  much,  to  have 
observed  much,  and  to  know  much  of  various  countries  and  peoples. 
But  the  negro  nature  he  especially  knows,  profoundly,  intimately ; 
knows  it,  not  by  intellection  merely,  but  also  by  heart ;  knows  it,  not 
through  the  cold  light  of  ethnological  science  only,  but  most  of  all, 
through  the  warm,  enkindling  recollections  of  boyhood  and  youth. 
The  negro,  who,  in  his  true  nature,  is  always  a  boy,  let  him  be  ever  so 
old,  is  better  understood  by  a  boy,  than  by  a  whole  academy  of  philos 
ophers,  unless  the  boy  element  in  the  said  philosophers  is  unusually 
long-lived  and  prosperous.  >/  The  author,  in  this  case,  guided  by  his  boy- 
knowledge  of  the  negro,  cannot  misconceive  or  untruthfully  delineate 
him.  How  appreciative,  how  loving,  how  tender  and  sympathetic,  he 
is  in  his  delineations,  we  will  let  a  few  extracts  show. 


LETTER    OF    THANKS   FBOM    THE  AUTHOR   TO 
HORACE    GKEELEY,  ESQ. 

WASHINGTON,  JUNK  20,  1859. 
HORACE  GREELET,  ESQ., 

Editor  New-York  Tribune. 

MY  DEAR  SIR  :  I  undoubtedly  owe  you  many  thanks  for  the  extra 
ordinary  and  flattering  marks  of  attention  you  have  bestowed  upon  my 
little  book  of  sketches  of  Slave  Life  in  the  South.  You  have  not  made 
them  the  subject  of  an  ordinary  "  book  notice."  You  have  not  bestowed 
upon  them  an  obscure  and  stinted  paragraph  in  the  literary  corner  of  the 
Tribune.  But  you  have  done  me  the  honor  of  devoting  a  long  editorial 
to  the  special  subject  of  the  interest  of  my  literary  performance.  That 
I  have  not  acknowledged  this  extraordinary  honor  sooner  has  not  been, 
I  assure  you,  my  dear  sir,  for  lack  of  appreciation,  but  in  waiting  for 
occasion  to  mature  wherein  I  might  make  my  acknowledgments  most 
properly  to  you. 

I  was  aware  that  the  subject  of  my  little  book  (the  "  almighty 
nigger  ")  was  a  tender  one  with  you.  I  had,  I  must  confess,  also  heard 
among  the  miserable,  ignorant  people  of  the  South  many  bad  accounts 
of  you.  You  had  been  represented  to  me  as  a  curious  old  man,  doting 
on  "  niggers,"  and  deriding  all  white  persons  who  fancied  themselves 
superior  to  your  idols.  Indeed,  report  said,  that  you  had  taken  your 
models  for  manners  from  the  negroes,  and  that,  in  speaking  of  your 
superiors,  you  were  in  the  habit  of  adopting  that  coarse  insolence  some 
times  displayed  by  Cuffy  in  adverting  to  white  people  at  a  distance. 

Can  you  then  be  surprised,  sir,  that,  with  such  slanders  of  you  made 
familiar  to  my  mind,  I  should  have  heard  with  some  degree  of  treruu- 
lousness  that  you  had  devoted  a  long  editorial  of  criticism  to  my  unob 
trusive  little  book.  I  naturally  concluded  from  the  slanders  current  in 
relation  to  you  that  your  criticism  was  very  adverse  ;  first,  because  it  was 

1* 


X          LETTER  TO  HORACE  GREELEY,  ESQ. 

my  misfortune  to  be  born  in  the  South,  and  secondly,  because  I  had 
propitiated  neither  political  party  by  that  coarse  abuse  which  has 
heretofore  been  made  the  appanage  of  all  the  controvertists  on  the  sub 
ject  of  slavery.  I  had  indeed  sought  to  shun  in  my  book  anything  that 
was  sectional  in  an  odious  sense.  I  had  conceived  the  idea  of  regarding 
the  negro  as  one  of  the  most  fruitful  and  innocent  topics  of  our  litera 
ture,  rather  than  as  a  firebrand  of  partisan  controversy.  Enough, 
however,  was  to  be  gathered  from  my  pages  to  show  that  I  did -not 
sympathize  with  your  own  peculiar  creed  of  nigger-idolatry.  1  there 
fore  feared  that  the  subject  of  my  little  book  had  been  tortured  by  you 
into  a  sectional  discussion,  and  that  you  had,  rather  as  the  politician 
than  as  the  man,  visited  your  censure  upon  my  humble  and  defenceless 
head. 

Judge  my  surprise — my  great  relief — my  gratification,  in  fact,  to 
find  that,  so  far  from  treating  my  book  with  sectional  acerbity,  you 
had  overlooked  the  vexed  question  in  its  literary  features,  had  com 
mended  its  innocent  beauties  of  sentiment,  and  had  mentioned  side  by 
side  with  some  of  the  touching  tales  of  the  classics,  the  little  domestic 
stories  it  contains.  You  compliment  its  heartfulness  ;  you  speak  of 
the  indulgence  of  the  author  in  "  the  pleasures  of  memory,"  and  say 
"  the  way  in  which  he  does  it  is  creditable  to  his  heart."  I  thank  you, 
sir,  for  this ;  for  sincerity  and  tenderness  I  esteem  no  light  virtues  of 
style.  But,  sir,  I  am  surprised  to  find  you  remark  that  you  have  not 
received  a  copy  of  the  book.  You  appear  to  have  praised  it  from 
detached  passages  you  have  seen  in  the  press.  One  extract  you  par 
ticularly  distinguish  in  your  praise,  and  you  say  of  this  : 

"  It  has  been  disintegrated,  if  we  may  say  so,  from  the  main  work, 
and,  in  the  highly  respectable  character  of  an  Elegant  Extract,  is  now 
milking  a  fashionable  tour  through  the  newspapers.  "VVe  trust  that 
the  lleverend  Doctor  Adams  has  seen  this  wandering  small  paragraph ; 
that  it  has  rendered  moist  his  venerable  eyes,  and  warmed  the  cockles 
of  his  ancient  heart." 

Sir,  I  can  only  say,  in  the  fulness  of  my  heart,  that  I  shall  imme- 


LETTER  TO  HORACE  OREELEY,  ESQ.         XI 

diately  supply  you  with  several  newly-printed  copies  of  my  book 
which  you  will  observe  I  have  done  you  the  compliment  of  entitling 
"  Black  Diamonds,"  from  a  term  which  you  have  applied  in  your  own 
criticism  of  it.  And  I  trust,  sir,  that  not  only  the  "  wandering  small 
paragraph,"  but  others  of  similar  pathos  may  warm  the  cockles  of  your 
own  heart,  as  well  as  that  of  Dr.  Adams. 

The  main  object  with  which  I  wrote  the  pages  you  commend  was  to 
present  some  natural  portraits  of  negro  character.  The  tenor  of  your 
criticism  shows  to  what  degree  you  esteem  me  to  have  attained  in  that 
respect.  And  your  judgment  in  this  matter,  my  dear  sir,  I  recognize 
as  of  extraordinary  value,  on  account  of  your  relations  to  the  negro. 
You  know  the  negro,  not  as  myself  from  the  distant  observation  of  the 
master,  but  from  the  contact  of  companionship.  You  know  him  from 
mingling  with  him,  and  from  brotherhood  with  him.  Your  criticism, 
therefore,  I  gladly  and  proudly  accept  as  a  judgment  of  the  naturalness 
of  my  descriptions. 

In  one  respect  of  your  article,  you  must  allow  me,  my  dear  sir,  to 
correct  you  in  point  of  information.  I  am  not,  as  you  conjecture,  an 
"  impoverished  office-holder."  Appearances,  too,  are  only  against  me 
when  you  judge,  that,  of  all  the  population  of  the  federal  metropolis, 
myself  seems  to  be  in  the  lowest  spirits,  "  if  we  except  Mr.  James 
Buchanan."  I  am,  thank  you,  sir,  in  tolerable  spirits  ;  am  not  a  mem 
ber  of  the  kitchen-cabinet ;  am  a  plain  man,  without  office  of  trust  or 
profit ;  and  am  fond  of  niggers  in  my  peculiar  way,  but  without  em 
bracing  in  my  affection  for  them  free  love,  free  wool,  and  "  the  forty 
thieves." 

In  conclusion,  I  hope,  my  dear  sir,  that  you  will  remember  the  good 
words  I  have  addressed  you,  should  I  again  fall  into  your  hands.  When 
my  Southern  friends  have  warned  me  of  your  ire,  I  have  invariably 
responded  with  good  words  of  you.  In  this,  I  have  taken  a  lesson  from 
that  sapient  old  negro,  Uncle  Junk,  of  whose  wisdom  I  have  given  some 
brief  account  in  my  book.  At  one  time,  a  minister  was  telling  Uncle 


Xil         LETTER  TO  HORACE  GREELEY,  ESQ. 

Junk,  to  work  him  to  repentance,  how  the  devil  tormented  those  who 
went  to  hell.  Junk  hoped  that  "  good  Mass'r  Debbie  "  wouldn't  be  so 
cruel.  The  minister  reproved  him  for  speaking  of  Satan  in  such  polite 
terms.  "  Well,  you  see,  Mass'r,"  replied  the  old  negro,  "  no  tellin'  but 
de  enemy  might  cotch  me,  and  den  I  trust  he  remember  as  how  I 
spoked  of  him  pcrlitely,  and  jes  de  same  as  if  he  was  a  white  man." 

I  remain,  Sir, 

Your  obliged,  humble  servant, 

EDWD.  A.  POLLARD. 


CONTENTS, 


LETTER    I. 

MACOX,  Georgia,  one  of  the  most  Beautiful  Cities  of  the  South — Fort 
Hawkins — Vineville — The  Public  Cemetery — The  "  Peculiar  Insti 
tution  " — An  Infamous  Libel — Yankee  Doughfaces — Xegro  Portraits 
of  Fiction-Writers  mere  Caricatures — Slavery  in  Various  Aspects — 
An  Unadulterated  Xegro — Aunt  Debby — Her  Religion — Anecdote  of 
Cffisar — Aunt  Debby  a  Coquette — The  .Whipping-Pott  and  Slave 
Mart  Abolition  Bugbears — Illustrative  Incident PAGE  17 

LETTER    II. 

A  Slave  Auction — Prices  of  Slaves — Humanity  of  Masters — Uncle 
George,  alias  "  Old  Bones  " — A  Beau  llickman  in  his  Way — Cared 
for  in  his  Old  Age — Aunt  Belinda,  his  "Wife — Religious  Bent  of  the 
Negro's  Mind — Sam's  Religious  Experience — Xegro  Hymns  and 
Chants — Xegro  Churches  in  Macon — Religious  Services — Xegro 
Funeral — The  Grave  of  "  Mammy" PAGE  28 

LETTER     III. 

Happiness,  What  constitutes  it  ? — Its  Independence  of  External  Con 
ditions — The  Slave  as  Happy  as  his  Master — Life  in  California — Its 
Trials,  Successes,  and  Reverses — Sympathy  of  Abolitionists  entirely 
Sentimental — Montgomery's  Poem,  "  The  West  Indies  " — Its  Poetic 
and  Delusive  Pictures  of  the  Xegro 's  Condition — Intimate  and  Genial 
Intercourse  between  the  Southern  Planter  and  his  Slaves — "  Brother 
Bromus,"  and  Pleasants,  the  Colored  Carriage-Driver — Practical 
Jokes PAGE  39 

LETTER    IV. 

Re-opening  of  the  Slave  Trade — Benefits  which  would  result  from  it — 
Its  Advantages  to  the  Working  Classes — An  Objection  to  it  met — 
The  Slave  Gentry — Their  Affected  Superiority  over  the  Humbler 
Classes  of  the  Whites — The  Simple,  Unadulterated  Slave — Pompey, 
an  Old  Guinea  Xegro — His  :i  Genteel "  Wife — Anecdotes  of  Pom- 
pey PAGE  52 


XIV  CONTENTS. 

LETTER    V. 

"  Disunion  Doctrine " — Importation  of  Africans  not  Necessarily  a 
Violation  of  Law — Sufficiency  of  Labor  a  Want  of  the  South — A 
Conservative  Policy — Critical  Stage  in  the  Political  History  of  the 
South— Let  the  South  Stand  or  Fall  by  the  Constitution PAGE  62 

LETTER    VI. 

A  Round  of  Visits— Travelling  on  a  Canal-Boat—One  of  the  F.  F.  V.8 
— "  Boisterous  Bet" — A  Peep  into  Bet's  Album — Disembarkation — 
An  Alabama  Judge — "Sound  on  the  Liquor  Queslion" — Oakridge 
Farm — Early  Associations — "  Uncle  Jeames,"  alias  "  Uncle  Jimboo" 
— His  Boy  Tom — Aunt  Judy — My  Brother  Dick — Our  Juvenile  Bat 
tles — The  Runaway  brought  back PAGE  69 

LETTER    VII. 

Negro  Slavery  in  the  United  States— Favorable  Contrast  with  other 
Systems  of  Slavery — A  Justification  of  it — The  Story  of  Rienzi,  an 
Illustration — Characteristics  of  the  Slaves'  Religion — Uncle  Nash, 
the  old  Black  Patriarch — His  Death  and  Burial-Place PAGE  81 

LETTER    VIII. 

The  Physical  Pains  of  Death — Recollections  of  a  Death-Scene — Death 
of  Aunt  Marie,  an  Old  Loved  Slave — Angels  in  Human  Form.. PAGE  90 

LETTER    IX. 

Worse  than  Idle  to  Argue  with  Abolitionists — Junk,  the  Cobbler — His 
Remarkable  Stories  of  Foreign  Travel — The  Skepticism  of  Colin — 
Junk's  Battle  with  Nutty — Trial  and  Summary  Punishment. .  .PAGE  98 

LETTER    X. 

Perpetuity  and  Extension  of  Negro  Slavery  Considered — Tropical 
America — Manifest  Destiny  of  the  South — Course  of  Great  Britain — 
The  Monroe  Doctrine — Walker's  Nicaragua  Expedition — Words  of 
Southern  Heroism PAGE  106 

LETTER    XI. 

A  Christian  Ghost  Story — Little  Sister  Rosalie — Her  Early  Death — The 
Stories  of  Aunt  Matilda — A  Message  from  Spirit  Land — Sickness — 
A  Vision. . .  PAGE  115 


BLACK    DIAMONDS. 


LETTER   I. 

MACOX,  GEORGIA,  1858. 

MY  DEAR  C :  I  engaged  to  write  you  from  the 

South,  and  I  take  the  earliest  opportunity  to  date  my 
correspondence  from  Middle  G-eorgia.  But  I  should  not 
fail  to  drop  you  a  line  or  two,  at  start,  of  Macon,  where 
I  write,  as  it  is  accounted  one  of  the  most  beautiful 
cities  of  the  South,  and  has  many  objects  of  interest, 
It  is  the  seat  of  several  public  institutions,  but  has  very 
little  trade.  Near  by  the  city,  on  a  commanding  posi 
tion,  stands  Fort  Hawkins,  a  rude  wooden  building, 
which  was  constructed  as  a  protection  against  the  In 
dians  ;  for  you  must  know  that  Macon  was  about  the 
frontier  of  Georgia  in  1818.  An  Indian  mound  is  in 
sight,  on  the  top  of  which  are  standing  a  few  tall,  melan 
choly  pines.  On  the  hills  which  surround  the  city,  and 
in  the  beautiful  little  vill  of  Vineville,  which  adjoins  it, 
may  be  seen  the  evidences  of  refinement,  in  the  hand- 


1&  I'-'-.  BLACK  DIAMONDS. 


. 


;xesid]Qr\oe§  adorned  with  shrubbery  and  evergreens  ; 
among  'whicli "  the "  olive  and  the  holly,  with  its  lucid 
green,  are  the  most  common.  Many  of  the  residences 
of,  men  of  wealth  are  admirable,  especially  for  their 
tasteful  grounds.  But  there  is  the  fondness  for  white 
paint,  which  may  be  observed  in  all  parts  of  the  South, 
and  for  a  nondescript  architecture,  in  which  all  styles 
are  jumbled  ;  or  a  plain  magnificence  studied  in  rows  of 
pillars  and  flights  of  steps,  which  frequently  give  to  a 
Southern  villa  the  singular  appearance  of  an  eleemosy 
nary  institution.  The  chief  object,  however,  to  which 
the  admiration  of  the  stranger  is  directed  in  Macon  is 
the  public  cemetery,  which  is  compared  (not  extrava 
gantly)  in  some  points  of  natural  scenery,  to  Mount  Au 
burn  and  Greenwood.  It  is  a  lovely  piece  of  ground, 
with  natural  terraces  overhanging  the  Ocmulgee,  and 
the  wild  glen  that  divides  it.  The  picturesque  effect, 
however,  is  almost  entirely  destroyed  by  the  thick  brush 
wood,  which  prevents  the  eye  from  taking  in  the  outlines 
of  the  scene.  The  ground  is  covered  with  coppices  of 
oak  and  pine,  and  studiously  kept  in  a  state  of  nature. 
It  seems,  however,  a  strange  idea  to  keep  the  natural 
scene  concealed  by  the  brushwood  which  everywhere 
intercepts  the  view.  Maybe,  it  is  intended  to  be 

"  Unadorned,  adorned  the  most " — 

an  aesthetic  fogy  ism,  en  passant,  disproved  and  despised, 
at  least  by  the  charming  ladies  of  Macon. 


BLACK  DIAMONDS.  19 

In  writing  to  you,  my  dear  0.,  of  the  South  and  its 
peculiar  institution  (as  I  intend),  I  am  sure  that  I  have 
no  prejudice  to  dispel  from  your  mind  on  the  subject; 
but  as  I  may  hereafter  publish  some  extracts  from  the 
correspondence,  I  hope  the  sketches,  which  may  amuse 
you,  may  correct  the  false  views  of  others,  derived,  as 
they  chiefly  are,  from  the  libels  of  Northern  spies, 
who  live  or  travel  here  in  disguise.  Thus  I  observed 
lately  a  communication  in  some  of  the  Abolition  papers, 
professing  to  have  been  written*by  one  who  has  been  a 
resident  of  Macon  for  eleven  years,  to  the  effect  that  the 
people  here  do  not  allow  Northern  papers  to  circulate  or 
be  taken  by  subscribers,  or  even  Congressional  documents 
to  be  among  them,  which  do  not  harmonize  with  their 
peculiar  views.  Although  this  infamous  libel  is  quite 
as  absurd  and  undeserving  of  contradiction  as  the  famed 
Arrowsmith  hoax,  or  any  of  the  Sanguinary  Crowbar 
style  of  negro-worship  fictions,  it  deserves  notice  in  one 
respect.  There  are  a  number  of  Yankee  doughfaces  in 
the  South,  who,  before  us,  are  the  greatest  admirers  of 
the  peculiar  institution^  and,  to  honey-fuggle  us,  even 
chime  in  with  the  abuse  of  their  own  section.  There  is 
danger  in  these  men  of  disguised  character,  many  of 
whom  are  doing  business  in  the  South.  They  are  not 
to  be  trusted ;  and  while,  not  satisfied  with  being  tole 
rated  among  us,  they  impose  on  our  confidence  and  hos 
pitality  by  their  professions,  they  take  secret  opportuni- 


20  BLACK  DIAMONDS. 

ties  to  gratify  their  real  hatred  of  us,  by  tampering  with 
the  slaves,  or  by  libelling  the  South  under  the  shelter 
of  anonymous  letters  published  in  the  North.  The  man 
who  would  devise  a  safe  opportunity  to  publish  what  he 
knew  to  be  false  and  libellous  of  those  whose  good  will 
he  had  won  by  another  lie,  might,  with  the  same  hope 
of  impunity,  venture  on  a  grander  revenge,  and  secretly 
conspire  with  the  slave  in  a  rebellion. 

But  it  is  not  my  purpose  to  trouble  you  with  a  disser 
tation  on  "  the  vexed  question,"  or  the  social  system  of 
the  South,  or  any  of  the  political  aspects  of  Slavery.  I 
merely  design  to  employ  a  few  leisure  hours  in  a  series 
of  unpretending  sketches  of  the  condition,  habits,  and 
peculiarities  of  the  negro-slave.  The  field,  you  know, 
has  furnished  a  number  of  books ;  and  I  am  sure,  my 
dear  C.,  that  you  are  too  sensible  of  the  large  share  of 
public  attention  niggers  occupy  in  this  country  to  slight 
them.  Besides,  I  am  thoroughly  convinced  that  the 
negro  portraits  of  the  fiction  writers  are,  most  of  them, 
mere  caricatures,  taking  them  all,  from  "Uncle  Tom's 
Cabin,"  down  to  the  latest  reply  thereto — "  a  book  " 
from  a  Virginia  authoress,  in  which  the  language  put  in 
the  mouth  of  her  leading  character  is  a  mixture  of  Irish 
idioms  with  the  dialect  of  the  Bowery.  Who  ever  heard 
a  Southern  negro  say,  as  the  Virginia  lady's  sable  hero 
does,  "  The  tip-top  of  the  morning  to  you,  young  ladies!" 
or  "What's  to  pay  now?"  Nor  will  we  find  any  of 


BLACK  DIAMONDS. 


21 


Mrs.  Stowe's  Uncle  Toms  in  the  South,  at  least  so  far  as 
tlie  religious  portraiture  goes.  The  negro,  in  his  religion, 
is  not  a  solemn  old  gentleman,  reading  his  Bible  in  cor 
ners  and  praying  in  his  closet :  his  piety  is  one  of  fits 
and  starts,  and  lives  on  prayer-meetings,  with  its  rounds 
of  'zortations,  shoutings,  and  stolen  sweets  of  haked 

Pig- 

You  already  know  my  opinion  of  the  peculiarities  of 

the  negro's  condition  in  the  South,  in  the  provision  made 
for  his  comfort,  and  in  the  attachment  between  him  and 
his  master.     The  fact  is,  that,   in  wandering  from  my 
native   soil  to  other  parts  of  the  world,   I  have   seen 
slavery  in  many  forms  and  aspects.     We  have  all  heard 
enough  of  the  colliers  and  factory  operatives  of  England, 
and  the  thirty  thousand  costermongers  starving  in  the 
streets  of  London  ;  as  also  of  the  serfs  and  crown-peas 
ants  of  Russia,  who  are  considered  not  even  as  chattels, 
but  as  part  of  the  land,  and  who  have  their  wives  select 
ed  for  them  by  their  masters.     I  have  seen  the  hideous 
slavery  of  Asia.      I   have   seen  the  coolies   of  China 
"housed  on  the  wild  sea  with  wilder  usages,"  or  creeping 
with  dejected  faces  into  the  suicide   houses  of  Canton. 
I  have  seen  the  Siamese  slave  creeping  in  the  presence 
of  his  master  on  all-fours — a  human  quadruped.     It  was 
indeed  refreshing,  after  such  sights,  to  get  back  to  the 
Southern  institution,  which  strikes  one  after  so  many 
years  of  absence,  with  a  novelty  that  makes  him  ap- 


22  BLACK  DIAMONDS. 

predate  more  than  ever  the  evidences  of  comfort  and 
happiness  on  the  plantations  of  the  South.  « 

The  first  unadulterated  negro  I  had  seen  for  a  number 
of  years  (having  been  absent  for  the  most  of  that  time 
on  a  foreign  soil),  was  on  the  railroad  cars  in  Virginia. 
He  looked  like  home.  I  could  have  embraced  the  old 
uncle,  but  was  afraid  the  passengers,  from  such  a 
demonstration,  might  mistake  mo  for  an  abolitionist. 
I  looked  at  him  with  my  face  aglow,  and  my  eyelids 
touched  with  tears.  How  he  reminded  me  of  my  home 
— of  days  gone  by — that  poetry  of  youth,  "  when  I 
was  a  boy,"  and  wandered  with  my  sable  playmates 
over  the  warm,  wide  hills  of  my  sweet  home,  and  along 
the  branches,  fishing  in  the  shallow  waters  with  a 
crooked  pin !  But  no  romancing  with  the  past !  So 
we  continue  our  journey  onward  to  "  the  State  of 
railways  and  revolvers." 

Arrived  in  Georgia,  I  find  plenty  of  the  real  genuine 
woolly-heads,  such  as  don't  part  their  hair  in  the  mid 
dle,  like  Mass'r  Fremont.  My  first  acquaintance  is 
with  Aunt  Debby.  I  insist  upon  giving  her  a  shake 
of  the  hand,  which  she  prepares  for  by  deprecatingly 
wiping  her  hand  on  her  apron.  Aunt  Debby  is  an  aged 
colored  female  of  the  very  highest  respectability,  and, 
with  her  white  apron,  and  her  head  mysteriously  envel 
oped  in  the  brightest  of  bandannas,  she  looks  (to  use 
one  of  her  own  rather  obscure  similes)  "  like  a  new 


BLACK    DIAMONDS.  23 

pin."  She  is  very  fond  of  usurping  the  authority  of 
her  mistress  below  stairs,  and  has  the  habit  of  designa 
ting  every  one  of  her  own  color,  not  admitted  to  equality, 
as  "  de  nigger"  Aunt  Debby  is  rather  spoiled,  if 
having  things  her  own  way  means  it.  If  at  times  her 
mistress  is  roused  to  dispute  her  authority,  Aunt  Debby 
is  sure  to  resume  the  reins  when  quiet  ensues.  "  Deb 
by,"  cries  her  mistress,  "  what's  all  this  noise  in  the 
kitchen — what  are  you  whipping  Lucy  for  ?"  "  La, 
missis,  I'se  jest  makin'  her  'have  herself.  She  too  busy 
walling  her  eyes  at  me,  and  spilt  the  water  on  the 
steps."  Among  the 'children,  Aunt  Debby  is  a  great 
character.  She  is,  however,  very  partial;  and  her 
favorite  is  little  Nina,  whom  she  calls  (from  what  re 
mote  analogy  we  are  at  a  loss  to  conjecture)  "  her 
jelly-pot."  I  flatter  myself  that  I  am  in  her  good 
graces.  Her  attention  to  me  has  been  shown  by  a 
present  of  ground-peas,  and  accessions  of  fat  lightwood 
to  my  fire  in  the  morning. 

The  religious  element  is  very  strong  in  Aunt  Debby 's 
character,  and  her  repertoire  of  pious  minstrelsy  is  quite 
extensive.  Her  favorite  hymn  is  in  the  following  words, 
which  are  repeated  over  and  over  again : 

"  Oh  run,  brother,  run  !     Judgment  day  is  comin' ! 
Oh  run,  brother,  run  !     Why  don't  you  come  along  ? 
The  road  so  rugged,  and  the  hill  so  high — 
And  my  Lord  call  me  home, 
To  walk  the  golden  streets  of  my  New  Jerusalem." 


24 


BLACK    DIAMONDS. 


Aunt  Debby's  religion  is  of  that  sort— ralways  beg 
ging  the  Lord  to  take  her  up  to  glory,  and  professing 
the  greatest  anxiety  to  go  right  now  !  This  religious 
enthusiasm,  however,  is  not  to  be  taken  at  its  word. 

You  have  doubtless  heard  the  anecdote  of  Caesar, 
which  is  too  good  not  to  have  been  told  more  than  once ; 
though  even  if  you  have  heard  the  story  before,  it  will 
bear  repetition  for  its  moral.  Now,  Caesar  one  day  had 
caught  it,  not  from  Brutus,  but  from  Betty — an  allegor 
ical  coquette  in  the  shape  of  a  red  cowhide.  On  retiring 
to  the  silence  of  his  cabin  at  night,  Caesar  commenced  to 
soliloquize,  rubbing  the  part  of  his  body  where  the  cas- 
tigation  had  been  chiefly  administered,  and  bewailing 
his  fate  with  tragic  desperation,  in  the  third  person. 
"  Caesar,"  said  he,  "  most  done  gone — don't  wrant  to 
live  no  longer !  Jist  come,  good  Lord,  swing  low  de 
chariot,  and  take  dis  chile  away  !  Caesar  ready  to  go — 
he  w ants  to  go !"  An  irreverent  darkey  outside,  hear 
ing  these  protestations,  tapped  at  the  door.  "  Who  dar  ?" 
replied  Caesar,  in  a  low  voice  of  suppressed  alarm.  "  De 
angel  of  de  Lord  come  for  Caesar,  'cordin  to  request." 
The  dread  summons  had  indeed  come,  thought  Csesar  ; 
but  blowing  out  the  light  with  a  sudden  whiff,  he  re 
plied,  in  an  unconcerned  tone,  "  De  nigger  don't  live 
here." 

There  is  one  other  trait  wanting  to  complete  Aunt 
Debby's  character.  Though  at  an  advanced  age,  she  is 


BLACK    DIAMONDS.  25 

very  coquettish ;  and  keeps  up  a  regular  assault  on  a  big 
lout  of  the  name  of  Sam,  whom  she  affects  to  despise  as 
"jist  de  meanest  nigger  de  Lord  ever  put  breath  in." 
I  overheard  some  words  between  them  last  holidoy. 
"  I'se  a  white  man  to-day,"  says  Sam,  "  and  I'se  not 
gwine  to  take  any  of  your  imperence,  old  ooman ;"  at 
the  same  time,  taking  the  familiar  liberty  of  poking  his 
finger  into  her  side  like  a  brad-awl.  "  Get  'long,  Sa — 
ten  !"  replied  Aunt  Debby,  with  a  shove,  but  a  smile  at 
the  same  time,  to  his  infernal  majesty.  And  then  they 
both  fell  to  laughing  for  the  space  of  half  a  minute, 
although  I  must  confess,  that  I  could  not  understand 
what  they  were  laughing  at. 

Aunt  Debby  may  serve  you^  my  dear  C.,  as  a  pic 
ture  of  the  happy,  contented,  Southern  slave.  Some  of 
your  Northern  politicians  would  represent  the  slaves  of 
the  South  as  sullen,  gloomy,  isolated  from  life — in  fact, 
pictures  of  a  living  death.  Believe  me,  nothing  could 
be  further  from  the  truth.  Like  Aunt  Debby,  they  have 
their  little  prides  and  passions,  their  amusements,  their 
pleasantries,  which  constitute  the  same  sum  of  happi 
ness  as  in  the  lives  of  their  masters. 

The  whipping-post  and  the  slave  mart  are  constantly 
paraded  before  the  eyes  of  the  poor,  deluded  fanatics  of 
your  section.  Now  I  can  assure  you  that  the  inhuman 
horrors  of  the  slave  auction-block  exist  only  in  imagi 
nation.  Many  instances  of  humanity  may  be  observed 


26  BLACK    DIAMONDS. 

there ;  and  but  seldom  does  the  influence  of  the 
almighty  dollar  appear  to  sway  other  and  better  con 
siderations  in  the  breast  of  the  slaveholder.  The  sepa 
ration  of  families  at  the  block  has  come  to  be  of  very 
unfrequent  occurrence,  although  the  temptation  is  ob 
vious  to  do  so,  as  they  generally  sell  much  better  when 
the  families  are  separated,  and  especially  as  the  traders, 
who  usually  purchase  for  immediate  realization,  do  not 
wish  small  children.  Indeed,  there  is  a  statute  in  this 
State  (Greorgia)  forbidding  the  sale  of  slave  children  of 
tender  age  away  from  their  parents. 

I  attended  a  slave  auction  here  the  other  day.  The 
negroes  were  called  up  in  succession  on  the  steps  of  the 
court-house,  where  the  crier  stood.  Naturally  most  of 
them  appeared  anxious  as  the  bidding  was  going  on, 
turning  their  eyes  from  one  bidder  to  the  other ;  while 
the  scene  would  be  occasionally  enlivened  by  some  jest 
in  depreciation  of  the  negro  on  the  stand,  which  would 
be  received  with  especial  merriment  by  his  fellow 
negroes,  who  awaited  their  turn,  and  looked  on  from  a 
large  wagon  in  which  they  were  placed.  As  I  came 
up,  a  second-rate  plantation  hand  of  the  name  of  Noah^ 
but  whom  the  crier  persisted  in  calling  "  Noey,"  was 
being  offered,  it  being  an  administrator's  sale.  Noey, 
on  mounting  the  steps,  had  assumed  a  most  drooping 
aspect,  hanging  his  head  and  affecting  the  feebleness  of 
old  age.  He  had  probably  hoped  to  have  avoided  a  sale 


BLACK    DIAMONDS.  27 

by  a  dodge,  which  is  very  common  in  such  cases.  But 
the  first  bid — $1,000 — startled  him,  and  he  looked 
eagerly  to  the  quarter  whence  it  proceeded.  "  Never 
mind  who  he  is,  he  has  got  the  money.  Now,  gentle 
men,  just  go  on  ;  who  will  say  fifty  ?"  And  so  the  crier 
proceeds  with  his  monotonous  calling.  "  I  aint  worth 
all  that,  mass'r  ;  I  aint  much  'count  no  how,"  cries 
Noey  energetically  to  the  first  bidder.  "  Yes,  you  are, 
Noey — -ah,  $1,010,  thank  you,  sir,"  replies  the  crier. 
The  gentleman  who  makes  this  bid  is  recognized  by 
Noey  as  "  Mass'r  John,"  one  of  the  heirs.  $1,011,  re 
joins  the  first  bidder,  and  Noey  throws  a  glance  of  in 
finite  disdain  at  him  for  his  presumption  in  bidding 
against  his  master.  But  as  the  bidders  call  over  each 
other,  Noey  becomes  more  excited.  "  Drive  on,  Mass'r 
John,"  he  exclaims,  laughing  with  excitement.  The 
bidding  is  very  slow.  Mass'r  John  evidently  hesitates 
at  the  last  call,  $1,085,  as  too  large  a  price  for  the 
slave,  thoygh  anxious  to  bid  the  poor  fellow  in  ;  but 
Noey  is  shouting  to  him,  amid  the  incitements  of  the 
crowd,  to  "  Drive  on ;"  and,  after  a  pause,  he  says  in  a 
firm  tone,  eleven  hundred  dollars.  The  crier  calls  out 
the  round  numbers  with  a  decided  emphasis.  He  looks 
at  the  first  bidder,  who  is  evidently  making  up  his  mind 
whether  to  i^o  higher,  while  Noey  is  regarding  him,  too, 
with  a  look  of  the  keenest  suspense.  The  man  shakes 


28  BLACK     DIAMONDS. 

his  head  at  last,  the  hammer  falls,  and  Noey,  with  an 
exulting  whoop,  dashes  down  the  steps  to  his  master. 
Yours  truly,  E.  A.  p. 

To  D.  M.  C.,  Esq.,  N.  Y. 


LETTER    II. 

MACON,  GEORGIA,  1858. 

MY   DEAR   C :   The  conclusion  of  my  last  letter 

was,  I  believe,  concerning  that  abolition  bugbear,  the 
slave  auction  mart.  Macon,  you  must  know,  is  one  of 
the  principal  marts  for  slaves  in  the  South.  Some  time 
ago,  I  attended  on  the  city's  confines  an  extraordinarily 
large  auction  of  slaves,  including  a  gang  of  sixty-one 
from  a  plantation  in  southwestern  Georgia.  The  prices 
brought  were  comparatively  low,  as  there  was  no  war 
ranty  of  soundness,  and  owing  very  much,  also,  to  the 
fact  that  the  slaves  were  all  sold  in  families  ;  and  they, 
too,  uncommonly  large,  as  I  counted  fifty-nine  negroes 
in  ten  families.  To  give  you  some  idea  of  the  prices 
brought.  I  quote  the  following :  Clarinda's  family — Cla- 
rinda,  plantation  cook,  weakly,  45  years  ;  Betsey,  field 
band,  prime,  22  years  ;  James,  field  hand,  prime,  14 
years  ;  Edmond,  Betsey's  son,  4  years,  brought  total, 
$2,620.  Jourdon's  family,  bright  mulattoes — Jourdon, 
blacksmith,  prime  33  years ;  Lindy,  field  hand,  prime, 
30  years  ;  Mary,  prime,  13  years  ;  "Winney,  prime,  12 


BLACK     DIAMONDS.  29 

years ;  Abbey,  prime,  9  years ;  Elizabeth,  prime,  6 
years,  brought  total,  $3,650.  Chloe's  family,  consist 
ing  all  of  likely  negroes,  the  younger  mulattoes — viz.  : 
Chloe,  field  hand,  prime,  33  years,  classified  as  "  the 
best  of  negroes  ;"  Clarissa,  fieldhand,  prime,  16  years  ; 
Junius,  prime.  9  years ;  Francis,  prime,  12  years ; 
Robert,  prime,  5  years ;  infant,  2  months,  brought 
total,  $2,940. 

During  the  sale  referred  to,  a  lot  was  put  up  consist 
ing  of  a  woman  and  her  two  sons,  one  of  whom  was 
epileptic  (classified  by  the  crier  as  "  fittified  ").  It  was 
stated  that  the  owner  would  not  sell  them  unless  the 
epileptic  boy  was  taken  along  at  the  nominal  price  of 
one  dollar,  as  he  wished  him  provided  for.  Some  of  the 
bidders  expressed  their  dissatisfaction  at  this,  and  a  tra 
der  offered  to  give  two  hundred  dollars  more  on  condition 
that  the  epileptic  boy  should  be  thrown  out.  But  the 
temptation  was  unheeded,  and  the  poor  boy  was  sold  with 
his  mother.  There  are  frequent  instances  at  the  auction- 
block  of  such  humanity  as  this  on  the  part  of  masters. 

Facts  like  these  should  teach  us,  my  dear  C.,  that 
when  that  feature  even,  which  we  all  ^confess  to  be  the 
worst  in  our  system  of  negro- slavery,  is  relieved  by  so 
many  instances  of  humane  and  generous  consideration 
on  the  part  of  slaveholders,  our  peculiar  institution  is 
one  the  virtues  of  which  qualify  its  defects,  and  of  pecu 
liar  merit. 


30 


BLACK     DIAMONDS. 


But  I  will  leave  off  sermonizing,  and  give  you  what  1 
promised — a  simple,  home  picture  of  slavery. 

I  must  tell  you,  next  to  Aunt  Debby  (who  figured  in 
my  last  letter,)  of  "  Uncle"  Greorge — "  Old  Bones,"  as 
we  boys  used  to  call  him.  In  our  young  days  we  were 
perpetually  either  teasing  or  trading  with  the  old  fellow, 
who  was  the  head-gardener,  and  was  kept  constantly  on 
the  lookout  by  our  depredations  on  his  vines.  Or  when 
we  got  a  few  cents  from  "  grandpa,"  or  obtained  leave 
to  give  away  our  "  old  clothes,"  how  we  used  to  buy 
from  him,  surreptitiously,  little  noggins  of  muddy  cider  ! 
Years  ago,  when  I  left  home,  he  was  then  almost  decrepit 
from  old  age,  but  his  avarice  and  keenness  at  a  trade 
with  his  "  young  mass'rs  "  were  the  same  as  ever.  He 
was  a  queer-looking  old  fellow  ;  never  would  wear  a  hat ; 
and,  with  his  immense  shock  of  hair  as  white  as  snow, 
and  standing  off  from  his  head,  and  his  enormous  leather 
"  galluses"  (suspenders),  he  made  a  singular  picture  in 
our  boyish  recollections. 

Ah  !  how  many  times  in  years  of  exile  from  my  native 
land  have  I  recalled  the  image  of  this  old  slave,  with  the 
picture  of  the  old  brick  garden,  with  its  grass  walks  and 
its  cherry-trees,  and  the  gentle  mounds  in  the  corner, 
that  saddest,  sweetest  spot  on  earth — the  parental  graves ! 

Boys  are  never  very  thoughtful.  Noth  withstanding 
Uncle  Greorge's  respectability  and  good  nature,  we  used 
to  worry  him  very  much,  and  were  constantly  on  the 


BLACK    DIAMONDS.  31 

alert  to  cheat  him  in  a  trade.  The  latter,  however,  it 
was  difficult  to  accomplish.  Quicksilvered  cents,  which 
we  used  to  cunningly  offer  him,  protesting  that  we 
had  just  "  found  !'  them,  would  not  go  with  him.  I 
rememher  well,  when  we  went  out  hunting — four  broth 
ers,  with  an  old  flint  gun — how,  after  shooting  a  few 
"  pecker  woods  "  in  the  orchard,  we  would  go  down  to  the 
garden  and  banter  Uncle  George  to  shoot  at  a  mark  for 
"  fourpence  apenny."  He  was  very  proud  of  doing  this, 
and  enjoyed  the  privilege  of  "  shooting  a  gun  "  with  the 
same  zest  as  a  ten-year-old  school  boy.  But  he  discovered 
our  trick  at  last — how  the  gun  was  loaded  for  him  with 
out  shot  and  with  five  "  fingers  "  of  powder,  "kicking  " 
him  most  unmercifully,  and  never  showing  the  least 
sign  on  the  target. 

If  you  should  ever  visit  "  Oakridge,"  my  dear  C.,  you 
must  be  prepared  for  a  grand  reception  by  Uncle  George, 
who  is  quite  a  Beau  Hickman  in  his  way.  He  is  a  very 
genteel  beggar.  He  makes  it  a  point  to  see  all  the  visitors 
who  come  to  our  nome ;  and  has  the  ugly  habit  of 
secretly  waylaying  them,  and  begging  them  to  "remem 
ber  "  him.  You  must  have  half-a-dollar  for  him  when 
you  come.  I  think  I  can  promise  that  you  will  not  be 
quite  as  heartless  to  his  appeal  for  a  place  in  your  memory, 
as  was  a  gentleman  from  the  North  ("  a  friend  of  humani 
ty  "),  who  lately  partook  of  our  hospitality.  On  his 
leaving,  Uncle  George,  as  usual,  exercised  his  privilege 


32  BLACK     DIAMONDS. 

of  bringing  the  horse  to  "  the  rack  ;"  and,  after  assist 
ing  the  gentleman  to  mount,  begged  that  "  mass'r  would 
*  remember  the  old  nigger."  "  Oh,  yes,"  replied  the 
friend  of  humanity,  as  he  rode  off,  "I  will  hot  forget 
you,  my  good  fellow  ;  I  will  think  of  you,  and  hope  you 
will  be  elevated  into  a  better  condition."  But  he  never 
gave  him  a  dime  to  be  elevated  with. 

On  the  morning  following  my  return  home,  after 
years  of  absence,  I  was  told  that  Uncle  George,  who 
was  too  decrepit  from  age  to  come  up  to  the  house, 
wanted  me  to  come  to  the  negro  "  quarter  "  to  see  him. 
He  understood  that  I  had  been  in  "that  gold  country," 
(he  meant  California)  and  he  wanted  to  see  his  young 
mass'r  very  particularly,  intimating  quite  clearly  that 
he  expected  a  handsome  present.  I  found  the  old  fellow 
very  comfortably  situated.  He  had  grown  old  gdntly  ; 
he  had  never  seen  any  hard  service  ;  and  now  in  his  old 
age  was  he  not  only  not  required  to  do  any  work,  but, 
with  that  regard  commonly  exhibited  toward  the  slave 
when  stricken  with  age,  he  had  every  attention  paid 
him  in  the  evening  of  his  life.  His  meals  were  sent 
out  to  him  from  our  own  table.  There  was  one  little 
considerate  attention  that  touched  me.  His  passion  for 
gardening,  which  had  been  the  whole  occupation  of  his 
life,  had  been  gratified  by  giving  him  a  little  patch  of 
ground  in  front  of  his  cabin,  where  he  might  amuse 
himself  at  his  own  option. 


BLACK    DIAMONDS.  38 

I  found  Uncle  George  in  his  miniature  garden.  The 
old  fellow  staggered  up  to  see  me,  and,  suddenly  drop 
ping,  clasped  me  around  the  knees.  I  was  quite  over 
come.  This  poor  old  man  was  "  a  slave,"  and  yet  he 
had  a  place  in  my  heart,  and  I  was  not  ashamed  to 
meet  him  with  tears  in  my  eyes.  Miserable  abolition 
ists  !  you  prate  of  brotherly  love  and  humanity.  If  you 
or  any  man  had  dared  to  hurt  a  hair  of  this  slave,  I 
could  have  trampled  you  into  the  dust. 

"  Uncle  George,"  said  I,  "I  am  sorry  to  see  you 
look  so  old."  "  Ah,  mass'r,  I'se  monstrous  old.  But 
missis  mighty  good  to  me.  She  know  I  set  store  by  all 
her  children.  Belinda"  (his  wife)  "nussed"  (he  means 
1  nursed  ')  "  all  of  you."  u  Well,  Uncle  George,"  I  said, 
"  I  am  glad  to  see  you  made  so  comfortable.  The 
family  should  never  forget  you.  I  have  often  heard 
how  you  saved  grandpa's  life,  when  he  was  drowning." 
"  Yes,  yes,  mass'r,"  replied  the  old  fellow,  "  and  I 
saved  him  many  a  dollar,  too." 

Aunt  Belinda,  Uncle  George's  wife,  I  find  in  the 
cabin,  as  blithe  as  ever,  though  stricken  with  age. 
She  is  also  on  the  retired  list,  and  her  only  care  is  to 
"  mind "  the  children  in  the  quarter.  The  religious 
element  is  quite  as  marked  in  her  character  as  in  that 
of  Aunt  Debby,  of  whom  I  spoke  in  my  last  epistle. 
But  it  is  more  tender  and  of  more  universal  love.  She 
parts  from  every  one  with  the  wish  of  ;<  meeting  them 


34  BLACK    DIAMONDS. 

at  the  right  hand  of  God."  She  sings  some  simple 
and  touching  hymns,  which  I  am  sorry  I  did  not  com 
mit  to  paper.  One  she  sings  very  sweetly,  in  which 
the  lines  constantly  recur — 

Oh,  Heaven,  sweet  Heaven,  when  shall  I  see? 
When  shall  I  ever  get  there  ? 

Of  another  favorite  hym  of  hers  I  took  down  me 
following  words : 

"  Go  back,  angels  !  Go  Lack,  angels  ! 
Go  back  into  Heaven,  little  children  ! 
Go  back,  little  angels  ! 
And  I  don't  want  to  stay  behind — 
Behold  the  Lamb  of  God  ! 
Behold  the  Lamb  of  God  ! 
And  I  don't  want  to  stay  behind." 

You  will  find,  my  dear  C.,  one  of  the  most  striking 
characteristics  of  the  negro  in  the  South  in  the  reli 
gious  bent  of  his  mind.  Whether  a  member  of  the  church 
or  no,  he  is  essentially  at  war  with  the  devil.  With 
him  religion  is  entirely  a  matter  of  sentiment,  and  his 
imagination  often  takes  unwarrantable  liberties  with 
the  Scriptures.  This  is  particularly  so  in  the  images 
he  conjures  up  of  the  place  where  the  bad  niggers  go, 
and  the  things  appertaining  thereto.  The  negro  who 
has  "  got  de  'ligion,"  and  has  never  been  favored  in  the 
process  with  a  peep  at  "  Ole  Sa-ten,"  or  is  unable  to 
give  a  full  description  of  his  person,  is  considered  by  his 


BLACK     DIAMONDS.  35 

brethren  a  doubtful  case — a  mere  trifler,  if  not  a  hypo 
crite. 

Sam  was  relating  to  me  the  other  day  his  religious 
experience,  in  the  course  of  which,  the  "  Old  Scratch" 
seems  to  have  given  him  a  great  deal  of  trouble,  appear 
ing  at  his  elbow  whenever  he  prayed,  and  walking  un 
ceremoniously  into  his  room,  cracking  a  long  whip,  of 
which  instrument  of  persuasion  Sam  seems  to  have  a 
peculiar  horror.  "  De  last  time  he  come,"  says  Sam, 
"  he  knock  at  de  door  and  call  *  Sam ;'  my  courage 
sorter  fail  me  den,  and  I  blows  out  de  light  and  tell 
him  de  nigger  done  dead  two  weeks  'go ;  and  den  he 
says,  <  If  you  don't  open  de  door,  you  dam  nigger,  I  will 
straighten  you  out ;'  and  den  I  jis  go  right  clean  out 
of  der  winder  ;  and  as  I  turn  de  corner,  here  come  ole 
mass'r  right  agin  me  ;  and  when  I  tell  him  as  how  I  jis 
seed  de  debble  wid  my-  own  eyes,  he  tell  me  I  gwine 
to  catch  him,  too,  and  dat  he  was  gwine  to  get  'ligion 
out  me  by  hooping" — a  new  use  you  might  imagine, 
my  dear  C.,  to  put  "hoops"  to;  but  I  discovered  that 
Sam's  pronunciation  was  bad,  and  that  he  meant 
nothing  more  than  a  dressing  to  his  hide. 

But  the  idea  we  get  of  the  negro's  religion  is  not  al 
ways  ludicrous.  Some  of  their  superstitions  are  really 
beautiful,  and  illustrate  their  poetic  cast  of  mind.  Their 
hymns,  or  religious  chants,  might  furnish  a  curious 

book.     The  words  are  generally  very  few,  and  repeated 

2* 


86  BLACK    DIAMONDS. 

over  and  over  again ;  and  the  lines,  though  very  un 
equal,  are  sung  with  a  natural  cadence  that  impresses 
the  ear  quite  agreeably.  Most  of  them  relate  to  the 
moment  of  death,  and  in  some  of  them  are  simple  and 
poetic  images  which  are  often  touching.  The  following 
occur  to  me  without  any  pains  at  selection : 

"  Oh,  carry  me  away,  carry  me  away,  my  Lord  ! 
Carry  me  to  the  berryin'  ground, 
The  green  trees  a-bowing.     Sinner,  fare  you  well ! 
I  thank  the  Lord  I  want  to  go, 
To  leave  them  all  behind. 
Oh,  carry  me  away,  carry  me  away,  my  Lord ! 
Carry  me  to  the  berryin'  ground." 

The  following  is  an  image  of  touching  simplicity  — 
a  thought  of  poetry  : 

"  I  am  gwme  home,  children  ;  I  am  gwine  home,  children, 
De  angel  bid  me  to  come. 
I  am  gwine  down  to  de  water  side— 
TSs  de  harvest  time,  children, 
And  de  angel  bid  me  come." 

The  negroes  here  have  three  or  four  churches  of  dif 
ferent  denominations — Baptist,  Methodist,  and  Presby 
terian — in  which  there  is  regular  service  every  Sunday. 
The  sermons  and  exhortations  of  the  colored  preachers, 
as  we  see  them  reported,  are  mostly  mere  caricatures. 
They  are  often  sensible,  and  though  the  images  are  those 
of  an  untutored  imagination,  they  are  anything  in  the 
world  but  ludicrous.  I  attended  the  services  of  one  of 


BLACK    DIAMONDS.  37 

the  negro  churches  last  Sunday,  and  hoard  really  a  very 
sensible  exhortation  from  one  of  their  colored  preachers, 
who,  although  he  commenced  by  telling  his  congrega 
tion  that  "  death  was  knocking  at  their  heels"  went  on 
to  draw  a  picture  of  the  judgment  with  a  wild,  native 
sublimity  that  astonished  me. 

A  feature  in  the  services  struck  me  rather  ludicrously. 
The  congregation  sang  a  duet,  which  ran  somewhat  as 
follows  : 

First  Voices.     Oh,  hallelujah  !  Glory  in  my  soul ! 

Second  Voices.     Humph  !  Whar  ? 

F.  V.  When  the  moon  go  down  the  mountain,  hide 
your  face  from  God. 

S.  V.     Humph  !  Whar  ? 

F.  V.     To  talk  with  Jesus.     Glory  hallelujah ! 

The  colored  Methodist  church  here  is  a  handsome 
building,  which  the  negroes  have  paid  for,  themselves, 
besides  maintaining  a  white  preacher.  You  must  know 
that  our  colored  gentry  (many  of  whom,  as  the  custom, 
is  here,  make  considerable  money  by  "  hiring  their  own 
time,"  and  paying  their  masters  a  stated  sum  for  the 
privilege),  not  only  maintain  parsons  and  build  churches, 
but  hire  carriages  on  Sundays  to  attend  them.  The  fact 
is,  we  have  too -many  of  these  colored  codfish  in  some 
parts  of  the  South,  especially  in  the  towns. 

While  I  was  in  Macon,  quite  a  spectacle  was  exhib 
ited  on  the  street,  in  the  obsequies  of  one  of  our  slave 


BLACK    DIAMONlrS. 

gentry.  The  deceased  had  been  attached  as  a  drummer 
to  one  of  our  volunteer  companies,  the  band  of  which 
accompanied  the  body  to  the  grave.  The  funeral  cor 
tege  was  truly  striking.  The  body  was  borne  through 
the  principal  streets  in  a  handsome  hearse,  fringed 
with  sable,  and  preceded  by  the  band  of  the  company, 
playing  funeral  marches,  while,  following  after,  came  a 
long  procession  of  negroes,  in  decent  attire,  and  a  por 
tion  riding  in  carriages.  Yes !  negroes  actually  riding 
in  carriages,  hired  each  at  eight  dollars  a  day !  What, 
my  dear  C.,  will  Mrs.  Stowe  and  the  nigger  worshippers 
say  now  of  all  this  "fuss  about  a  dead  nigger?" — a 
deprecation,  you  will  recollect,  of  mass'r  Legree  ! 

Let  them  say  what  they  please,  say  I,  as  long  as  they 
cannot  get  our  negroes  away  from  us,  and  kill  them  off 
in  their  own  unfeeling  land  with  cold,  nakedness,  and 
hunger.  I  am  not  ashamed,  my  dear  C.,  to  confess  to 
be  attached  by  affection  to  some  of  the  faithful  slaves 
of  our  family,  to  have  sent  them  remembrances  in  ab 
sence,  and,  in  my  younger  days,  to  have  made  little 
monuments  over  the  grave  of  my  poor  "  mammy."  Do 
you  think  I  could  ever  have  borne  to  see  her  consigned 
to  the  demon  abolitionist,  man  or  woman,  and  her  lean, 
starved  corpse  rudely  laid  in  a  pauper's  grave  ?  No  ! 
At  this  moment  my  eyes'  are  tenderly  filled  with  tears 
when  I  look  back  through  the  mists  of  long  years  upon 
the  image  of  that  dear  old  slave,  and  recollect  how  she 


BLACK    DIAMONDS.  39 

loved  me  in  her  simple  manner  ;  how,  when  chided  even 
by  my  mother,  she  would  protect  and  humor  me ;  and 
how,  in  the  long  days  of  summer,  I  have  wept  out  my 
boyish  passion  on  her  grave.     Yours  truly,         E.  A.  p. 
To  D.  M.  C.,  Esq.,  N.  Y. 


LETTER    III. 

BRIARCLIFF,  VIRGINIA,  1858. 

MY  DEAR  C :  I  have  been  reflecting  how  illusory 

and  fallacious  are  our  poor  human  doctrines  of  happi 
ness.  What  is  happiness  ? — a  question  often  proposed 
and  often  answered  by  enumerations  of  pleasures  and 
gifts  of  fortune.  But  we  cannot  analyze  happiness  ;  we 
cannot  name  its  elements  ;  we  cannot  say  what  consti 
tutes  it ;  all  that  can  be  determined,  is  the  fact  whether 
or  no  we  possess  happiness,  and  that  fact  is  one  of  indi 
vidual  consciousness.  Happiness  is  a  fact  of  conscious 
ness  :%it  is  subjective;  it  is  independent  of  all  external 
conditions  ;  and  it  is  individual.  The  body  may  be 
surrounded  by  every  comfort ;  the  mind  may  be  intoxi 
cated  by  pleasures ;  the  whole  life  may  be  illumined 
with  fortune ;  no  affliction  may  ever  cast  its  cold 
shadow  on  the  path  ;  riches  may  dazzle  ;  soft  loves  may 
breathe  their  incense  ;  the  conscience  even  may  never 
accuse,  and  the  wild  pulse  of  pleasure  may  beat  on  and 
on ;  but  the  man  of  all  this  store  and  of  all  this  fortune, 


40  BLACK     DIAMONDS. 

when  he  explores  his  consciousness,  may  find  the  senti 
ment  of  unhappiness  mysteriously  and  unalterably 
there.  How  wonderful  is  this! 

Yet,  dear  C.,  there  may  be  many  who  would  accuse 
me  of  pressing  a  trite  and  very  simple  observation  in 
thus  speaking  of  the  independence  of  happiness  of  all 
external  conditions.  I  think  this  one  of  the  great  mys 
teries  of  life  ;  and  those  who  have  felt  its  truth  stealing 
into  their  hearts  will  think  so  too.  Some  days  ago,  I 
was  walking  in  the  fields  ;  the  sunset  and  the  balmy 
air  tranquillized  me ;  I  had  nothing  at  that  time  to  com 
plain  of,  or  to  accuse  myself  of,  and  yet  at  that  moment 
when  I  saw  a  poor  man  walking  to  his  home  along  the  cool 
shadow  of  the  road,  I  suddenly,  mysteriously,  and  earnest 
ly  wished  that  I  was  he,  and  might  rest,  rest  from  the 
weary  world. 

Yes,  my  beloved  friend,  God  gives  happiness  to  men, 
without  reference  to  the  circumstances  that  surround 
them  ;  he  gives  it  to  the  beggar  as  well  as  the  lord  ;  to 
the  slave  as  well  as  the  master.  The  doctrine  of  ine 
quality  in  the  distribution  of  happiness  is  impious  and 
infidel,  and  should  be  rejected  as  a  vile  and  corrupt 
ing  dogma  of  the  atheists  and  free-thinkers.  The  distri 
bution  is,  in  fact,  where  men  do  not  pervert  the  designs 
of  Providence,  as  nearly  equal  as  it  is  possible  to  imagine ; 
for  even  in  the  distribution  of  that  portion  of  happiness 
derived  from  external  condition,  there  is  introduced  a 


BLACK    DIAMONDS.  41 

singular  law  of  compensation,  which  adjusts  our  natural 
and  original  appreciation  of  the  gifts  of  fortune,  precise 
ly  in  inverse  proportion  to  what  we  have  of  them. 

There  was  a  time  when  I  thought,  too,  how  un 
equally  happiness — Heaven's  gift — was  shared  in  hy 
men.  Often  and  acutely,  when  a  tender  and  inexpe 
rienced  boy,  did  I  suffer  from  that  thought.  It  diseased 
my  sensibilities ;  it  introduced  into  my  life  a  dark  and 
gloomy  melancholy  ;  it  made  me  sorrowful,  sometimes 
sullen,  sometimes  fierce.  "Well  do  I  recall  those  feel 
ings.  In  the  midst  of  my  own  boyish  enjoyments, 
when,  having  a  pleasant  ride  in  the  old  swinging  car 
riage,  or  feasting  on  delicacies,  1  have  suddenly  thought 
of  my  poor  little  slave  companions,  how  they  had  to 
work  in  the  fields,  how  they  were  made  to  tote  burdens 
under  the  summer's  sun,  what  poor  food  they  had,  and 
with  what  raptures  they  would  devour  "  the  cake  " 
with  which  I  was  pampering  myself.  Then  would  I 
become  gloomy,  embittered,  and  strangely  anxious  to 
inflict  pain  and  privation  on  myself;  and  with  vague 
enthusiasm  would  accuse  the  law  that  had  made  the 
lots  of  men  so  different.  1  was  fast  becoming  the  victim 
of  the  same  fanaticism,  the  fruits  of  which  we  see  de 
veloped  in  a  senseless  self-martyrdom,  or  in  a  fierce  in 
fidelity,  or  in  modern  socialism,  or  in  the  reckless  spirit 
of  "  abolitionism  ;"  or  in  any  of  the  insane  efforts  to 
make  all  men  equally  free  and  equally  happy. 


42  BLACK    DIAMONDS. 

But  the  bitter  experiences  of  life  have  cured  these 
feelings.  In  its  sad  and  painful  struggles  has  expired 
my  juvenile  and  false  philosophy,  and  I  have  awakened 
to  the  calm,  serious,  profound  conviction,  that  every 
human  lot  has  its  sorrow  and  its  agony,  and  that,  as 
an  Italian  proverb  beautifully  signifies — "  A  skeleton 
misery  is  shut  up  in  the  closet  of  every  heart."  I  am 
profoundly  convinced  that  the  negro-slave  has  naturally 
as  much  of  happiness  as  I.  What  I  disappreciate  is 
to  him  an  almost  priceless  source  of  enjoyment ;  the 
pain  I  derive  from  a  thousand  delicate  griefs  he  never 
feels  ;  all  that  I  suffer  from  struggles,  from  disappoint 
ments,  from  agonies  in  a  superior  career,  he  is  a  happy 
stranger  to.  It  is  a  very  simple  truth,  my  dear  C.,  that 
happiness  is  in  the  mind — but  when  will  the  world  learn 
the  plain  leson,  wipe  away  the  tears  of  all  sentiment 
al  sympathy,  and  adopt,  as  the  great  rule  of  life,  that 
every  man  should  bear  his  own  burdens  ;  that  the  object 
of  sympathy  is  individual ;  and  that  it  is  equally  sense 
less  and  sinful  to  sorrow  over  lots  inferior  to  our  own, 
as  to  repine  for  and  envy  those  which  are  superior. 

I  have  no  tears  for  the  lot  of  the  negro-slave  :  he  can 
make  it  as  happy  as,  and  perhaps  happier  than,  my 
own.  I  look  into  my  own  heart  and  write  what  I  find 
there.  Years  ago,  I  left  my  home  to  adventure  into  the 
world,  to  seek  my  fortune  tens  of  thousands  of  miles 
away  ;  but  my  heart  was  swelling,  defiant,  joyous ;  I 


BLACK    DIAMONDS.  43 

had  glowing  prospects,  and  was  departing  with  a  flush 
of  exultation,  which  even  the  last  tears  that  I  dropped 
on  my  mother's  hosom  clouded  but  for  a  moment.  But 
when  I  stood  waiting  for  the  boat  along  the  little 
muddy  canal,  where  began  my  journey,  that  was  by 
progressive  stages  at  last  to  enter  upon  the  great  ocean, 
and  when  poor  old  gray-headed  Uncle  Jim  came  down 
to  the  bank,  tottering  under  my  fine  trunk,  and  stood 
watching  my  departure  with  loud,  fervent  blessings,  my 
heart  was  struck  with  a  peculiar  grief.  I  thought  that 
while  I  was  going  out  to  the  world,  to  taste  its  innu 
merable  joys,  to  see  its  fine  sights,  to  revel  in  its  fine 
linens,  its  wines,  and  its  dissipations,  here  was  poor, 
good  old  Uncle  Jim  to  go  back  along  the  old  wagon 
rut  through  the  woods  to  his  log  cabin,  to  return  to  the 
drudgery  of  the  stupid  old  fields,  condemned  never  to 
see  the  fine  world,  never  to  taste  its  pleasures,  never 
to  feel  the  glow  of  its  passionate  joys,  but  to  die 
like  the  clod,  which  alone  was  to  mark  his  grave.  So  I 
thought  when  I  left  Uncle  Jim  on  the  canal  bank,  be 
wailing  his  "  little  young  massYs  "  departure ;  (but 
considerately  provided  by  me  with  two  whole  dollars  to 
console  him  with  a  modicum  of  whiskey,  molasses,  and 
striped  calicoes,  at  the  grocery  that  stood  hard  by.) 

Well,  dear  C.,  I  went  out  into  the  world.  I  went  first 
to  California,  and  for  four  years  there  I  think  I  learned 
some  lessons  that  will  last  me  through  life.  I  had  lost 


44  BLACK     DIAMONDS. 

none  of  my  buoyancy  when  I  first  stepped  on  old  "  Long 
Wharf,"  and  took  my  first  drink  of  genuine  strychnine 
whiskey  at  an  old  shanty  that  stood  curiously  at  the 
head  of  the  wharf,  surmounted  by  an  immense  wooden 
figure  of  "  the  Wandering  Jew."  I  went  boldly  and 
buoyantly  to  work  the  moment  I  landed.  Well,  it  is 
needless  to  repeat  to  you  here  the  story  of  my  trials,  my 
successes,  and  my  dread  reverses.  When  the  world 
treated  me  most  roughly — when  I  writhed  in  all  the 
agony  of  the  defeat,  self-distrust,  and  self-contempt  of 
a  sensitive  ambition — when  poverty-stricken  I  worked 
along  one  of  the  little  streams  that  ran  through  a  pine 
glade  of  the  Sierra,  and  when  I  buried  my  only  friend 
Mac  there,  high  up  on  the  hill-side,  that  the  gold-diggers 
might  never  disturb  his  clust,  and  lay  down  at  night 
in  despair,  waking  up  with  the  demoniac  joys  of  a  reck 
less  life  burning  in  my  heart,  burning  out  my  life — 
friendless,  moneyless,  agonized — with  such  experiences 
of  my  own  of  the  life  of  this  world,  I  had  very  little 
sympathy  left,  I  assure  you,  for  buck  negroes  "  pining 
in  their  chains,"  or  any  other  sort  of  sentimental  barba 
rians.  I  just  felt  that  every  man  has  his  own  burden 
to  bear  in  this  life ;  that,  while  (I  hope  to  God)  I  would 
always  be  found  ready  to  sympathize  with  and  assist  any 
individual  tangible  case  of  suffering,  I  would  never  be 
such  a  fool  thereafter  as  to  make  the  abstract  lots  of 
men  in  this  world  an  object  of  sympathy.  I  venture 


BLACK    DIAMONDS.  45 

to  say  that  I  have  suffered  more  of  unhappiness  in  a 
short  worldly  career  than  ever  did  my  "  Uncle  Jim"  or 
any  other  well  conditioned  negro  slave  in  a  whole  life 
time.  How  many  of  us,  who  are  blessed  with  so 
many  external  gifts  of  fortune,  can  lay  our  hands  on 
aching,  unsatisfied  hearts,  and  say  the  same ! 

I  am  persuaded,  my  dear  C.,  that  the  sympathy  ol 
the  abolitionists  with  the  negro  slave  is  entirely  senti 
mental  in  its  source.  They  associate  with  the  idea  in 
spired  by  that  terrible  word  <  slavery"  the  poetic  and 
fiendish  horrors  of  chains,  scourges,  and  endless  despair. 
They  never  pause  to  reflect  how  much  better  is  the  lot 
of  the  sable  son  of  Ham,  as  a  slave  on  a  Southern  plant 
ation  well  cared  for,  and  even  religiously  educated,  than 
his  condition  in  Africa,  where  he  is  at  the  mercy  of  both 
men  and  beasts,  in  danger  of  being  eaten  up  bodily  by  his 
enemy,  or  being  sacrificed  to  the  Fetish  or  in  the  human 
hecatombs,  by  which  all  state  occasions  are  said  to  be 
celebrated  in  the  kingdom  of  Dahomey.  Indeed,  these 
foolish  abolitionists,  under  a  sentimental  delusion,  are 
brought  to  regard  the  condition  of  the  negro  in  Africa  as 
one  of  simple,  poetic  happiness,  while  associating  with 
the  idea  of  his  "  slavery"  a  thousand  horrors  of  imagi 
nation.  If  you  will  hunt  up  a  poem  by  James  Mont 
gomery,  entitled  "  The  West  Indies"  which  was  written 
during  the  early  days  of  the  British  "  abolitionists," 
and  used  as  a  most  powerful  appeal  in  their  cause,  being 


46 


BLACK    DIAMONDS. 


published  with  the  most  profuse  and  costly  illustrations, 
you  will  find  the  same  poetic  and  delusive  pictures  of  the 
condition  of  the  negro  in  Africa  on  the  one  hand,  and  his 
lot  as  a  slave  on  the  other,  which  exercise  so  great  an  in 
fluence  on  the  weak  imaginations  of  the  present  day.  I 
copy  some  characteristic  passages.  Here  is  the  picture 
of  the  negro  at  home  : 

"  Beneath  the  beams  of  brighter  skies, 
His  home  amidst  his  father's  country  lies  ; 
There  with  the  partner  of    his  soul  he  shares 
Love-mingled  pleasures,  love-divided  cares  ; 
There,  as  with  nature's  warmest  filial  fire. 
He  soothes  his  blind  and  feeds  his  helpless  sire, 
His  children,  sporting  round  his  hut,    behold 
How  they  shall  cherish  him  when  he  is  old. 
Trained  by  example,  from  their  tenderest  youth, 
To  deeds  of  charity  and  words  of  truth. 
Is  he  not  blest  ?     Behold,  at  close  of  day, 
The  negro  village  swarms  abroad  to  play  ; 
He  treads  the  dance,  through  all  its  rapturous  rounds 
To  the  wild  music  of  barbarian  sounds." 

But  the  negro,  (according  to  our  poet)  is  rudely 
snatched  away  from  this  poetic  home  of  peace,  loveliness, 
virtue,  rapture,  &c.,  &c.,  and  is  condemned  to  "  slavery  " 
condemned  to  endure 

"  The  slow  pangs  of  solitary  care — 
The  earth-devouring  anguish  of  despair  ; 
"When  toiling,  fainting,  in  the  land  of  canes, 
His  spirit  wanders  to  his  native  plains, 
His  little  lovely  dwelling  there  he  sees, 
Beneath  the  shade  of  his  paternal  trees — 
The  home  of  comfort." 


BLACK    DIAMONDS.  47 

Is  not  all  this  very  .absurd  ?  But  it  is  just  such  stuff 
on  which  are  fed  the  weak,  fanatical  imaginations  of  our 
modern  abolitionists  and  shriekers.  Here,  again,  is  a 
picture,  hy  our  poet,  of  a  slave  proprietor,  which  will  suit 
to  a  nicety  the  modern  New-England  conception  of  a 
Southern  "  nigger-driver." 

"  See  the  dull  Creole  at  his  pompous  board, 
Attendant  vassals  cringing  round  their  lord  ; 
Satiate  with  food,  his  heavy  eyelids  close, 
Voluptuous  minions  fan  him  to  repose. 
Prone  on  the  noonday  couch  he  lolls  in  vain, 
Delirious  slumbers  rack  his  maudlin  brain  ; 
He  starts  in  horror  from  bewildering  dreams, 
His  blood-shot  eye  with  fire  and  frenzy  gleams. 
He  stalks  abroad  ;  through  all  his  wonted  rounds, 
The  negro  trembles  and  the  lash  resounds  ; 
And  cYies  of  anguish,  shrilling  through  the  air, 
To  distant  fields  his  dread  approach  declare." 

Now,  my  dear  C.,  it  is  needless  to  say  to  you  that  we 
have  no  such  ogres  in  the  South,  or  to  delay  you  with' 
criticisms  of  these  hyper-poetical  and  nonsensical  pictures 
of  slavery.  I  wish  to  recur  to  the  more  logical  style, 
with  which  I  started  out  in  the  commencement  of  this 
letter.  I  wish  to  say  that  the  happiness  of  the  Southern 
slave  is  not  to  be  estimated  by  his  paucity  of  fortune,  or 
any  such  vulgar  standard  ;  but  that  we  are  to  consider, 
as  peculiar  elements  of  happiness  in  his  lot,  his  peaceful 
frame  of  mind,  his  great  appreciation  of  the  little  of 
fortune  he  has  (by  a  rule  of  inverse  proportion),  and 
his  remission  from  all  the  ordinary  cares  of  life.  I  will 


48  BLACK  DIAMONDS. 

here  add,  too,  in  contradiction  and  in  contempt  of  the 
poet's  picture  supra  of  the  dreadful  slave-owner,  that  a 
great  and  peculiar  source  of  happiness  to  the  Southern 
slave  is  the  freedom  of  intercourse  and  attachment  be 
tween  himself  and  his  master. 

Instead  of  a  slave-owner  stalking  around  "  with  fire 
and  frenzy,"  amid  the  "shrilling"  cries  of  slaves,  we 
will  find  the  intercourse  between  the  Southern  planter 
and  slave,  even  in  the  fields,  to  be  generally  of  the 
most  intimate  and  genial  kind.  Your  own  observation 
in  the  South,  dear  C.,  will  doubtless  attest  this  cir- 
cumstanqe.  You  have  seen,  as  well  as  I,  a  master 
kindly  saluting  his  slaves  in  the  field,  and  listen 
ing  patiently  to  their  little  requests  about  new  clothes, 
new  shoes,  &c.  And  you  have,  no  doubt,  also  seen  slaves, 
in  their  intercourse  with  the  families  of  their  masters, 
playing  with  the  children,  indulging  their  rude  but  sin 
gularly  innocent  humor  with  them,  and  joining  their 
young  masters  in  all  sorts  of  recreation.  It  is  these 
social  privileges  which  constitute  so  large  and  so  peculiar 
a  source  of  enjoyment  in  the  life  of  the  slave,  and  which 
distinguish  his  lot  so  happily  from  that  of  the  free  laborer, 
who  has  nothing  but  a  menial  intercourse  with  his  em 
ployer. 

I  might,  dear  C.,  give  you  a  number  of  anecdotes  from 
my  own  experience,  of  the  intimacy  which  is  frequently 
indulged  between  the  Southern  slave  and  the  members 


BLACK  DIAMONDS.  49 

of  his  master's  family.  I  was  trained  in  an  affectionate 
respect  for  the  old  slaves  on  the  plantation  ;  I  was  per 
mitted  to  visit  their  cabins,  and  to  carry  them  kind 
words  and  presents;  and  often  have  I  been  soundly  and 
unceremoniously  whipped  by  the  old  black  women  for 
my  annoyances.  All  my  recreations  were  shared  by 
slave  companions.  I  have  hunted  and  fished  with  Cuffy ; 
I  have  wrestled  on  the  banks  of  the  creek  with  him ; 
and  with  him  as  my  trusty  lieutenant,  I  have  "  filibus 
tered",  all  over  my  old  aunt's  dominions  from  "  Rucker's 
Run"  to  cousin  "  Bobity  Bee's." 

And  then  there  was  "  brother  Bromus,"  who  had  many 
a  fight  with  Wilson  and  Cook  Lewis,  and  who,  besides 
being  generally  whipped,  always  paid  the  penalty  for  the 
fun  of  fighting  by  a  sound  thrashing  at  the  hands  of 
Pleasants,  the  colored  carriage-driver,  and  the  father  of 
the  aforesaid  black  youngsters.  Would  you  believe  it, 
poor  Bromus  stood  in  such  terror  of  this  black  man,  that 
even  after  he  had  gone  to  college,  and  used  to  spout 
Latin,  and  interlard  his  conversation  to  us  boys  with 
pompous  allusions  to  college  life,  and  with  the  perpetual 
phrase  of  "when  I  was  at  the  U-ni-ver-si-ty,"  it  was 
only  necessary  to  threaten  him  with  Pleasants'  wrath,  to 
subdue  and  frighten  him  into  anything.  But  Pleasants 
was  an  amiable  enough  negro  gentleman,  and  although 
he  used  Bromus  pretty  badly  at  times,  he  showed  him  a 
good  deal  of  rough  kindness,  which  B.,  to  this  day, 


50  BLACK  DIAMONDS. 

gratefully  acknowledges,  and  which  Pleasants  avers, 
with  great  pride  in  his  manly  master,  was  the  "making 
of  him." 

Many  a  time,  with  my  sable  playmates  as  companions 
and  conspirators  in  the  deed,  have  I  perpetrated  revenge 
for  such  "rough  kindness"  on  the  old  ill-natured  blacks. 
What  fun  we  used  to  have ;  and  then  there  was  no 
cruelty  to  mar  the  sport.  "We  limited  ourselves  to  simple 
practical  jokes,  and  all  sorts  of  harmless  annoyances — 
would  propel  apples  at  Uncle  Peyton  when  he  got  drunk 
in  the  orchard ;  and  would  send  the  negroes  out  of  the 
fields  upon  all  sorts  of  fools'  errands,  and  lie  in  wait  to 
witness  their  reception  at  the  grand  stone  steps  of  the 
house  by  "  ole  mass'r,"  with  his  inevitable  square-toed 
boots.  No  one  enjoyed  the  sport  more  heartily  than  our 
sable  companions,  who,  in  all  the  affairs  of  fun  and  re 
creation,  associated  with  us  on  terms  of  perfect  equality. 

But  let  me  dismiss  1hese  desultory  allusions  to  young 
days,  to  which  my  memory  reverts  with  more  of  sadness 
than  of  laughter.  I  ask,  seriously,  who  shall  say  that 
the  black  companions  of  our  rambles  and  sports,  who 
cheated  us,  quizzed  us,  fought  us  as  freely  as  we  did 
them,  were  not  as  happy  as  ourselves  ?  Now  we,  their 
young  masters,  and  they,  have  grown  up  to  be  men. 
From-  being  companions  in  youth,  they  have  grown  up 
into  slaves,  we  into  masters.  We  two  are  pursuing 
Journeys  far  apart  across  the  fickle  desert  of  life.  But 


BLACK  DIAMONDS.  51 

may  it  not  be  that  they  are  still  as  happy  as  we  ?  It  is 
true  that  they  have  an  humble  and  inglorious  career 
before  them,  and  must  ever  bear  the  painful  thought  of 
dying  without  leaving  a  mark  behind  them  ;  but  unlike 
many  a  poor  white  man,  who  has  to  tread  the  same  career, 
not  only  without  a  hope  of  glory,  but  along  the  thorns  of 
want  and  through  great  agony,  they  see  manifested  a  con 
stant  care  to  provide  for  their  support,  to  lead  them  along 
peaceful  and  thornless  paths,  and  to  sustain  them  even 
to  the  final  close  of  life's  journey  to  the  grave.  Is  there 
no  happiness  in  this  ?  Is  it  possible  that  the  negro,  who 
has  his  human  and  rational  wants  supplied  constantly 
and  certainly,  and  who  is- indulged  with  so  considerable 
a  degree  of  social  intercourse  with  his  master,  can  be 
made,  by  the  single  abstract  reflection  that  he  lacks 
"  liberty"  (abolition  liberty,  mark  you),  more  unhappy 
than  his  master,  who  may  see  nothing  in  his  own  career 
but  a  struggle  with  the  great  necessities  of  life,  closing 
in  a  grave  as  readily  forgotten  as  that  of  his  slave  ?  Who 
shall  judge  of  other  men's  happiness  in  this  world  ?  Let 
the  slave  speak  for  himself;  let  the  master  speak  for 
himself;  and  let  the  record  be  made  when  justice,  the 
only  equal  thing — and  that  equalizes  all  things — shall 
be  brought  down  from  the  heavens  to  be  done  upon 
earth. 

Yours  truly, 

E.  A.  P. 

To  D.  M.  C  ,  Esq.,  N.  Y. 


52  BLACK  DIAMONDS. 


LETTER    IV. 

CHARLESTON,  SOUTH  CAROLINA,  1858. 

MY  DEAR  C :  You  will  permit  me  to  say  that  the 

expressions  in  your  letter,  of  repugnance  at  the  proposi 
tion  to  re-open  the  Slave*  trade,  and  of  horror  at  what 
you  esteem  will  be  its  consequences  to  the  country,  as 
well  as  to  the  abstract  cause  of  morality,  are,  in  my 
humble  opinion,  unjust  to  the  facts  of  the  case,  and  un 
called  for. 

In  preceding  letters,  I  think  I  promised  you  something 
about  not  discussing  slavery  as  a  political  question  in 
any  respect.  I  believe  that  so  far  I  have  adhered  gene 
rally  to  that  engagement ;  and  you  will  now  indulge  me 
for  a  moment,  dear  C.,  simply  to  say  that  there  are  many 
minds  among  us  'firmly  convinced  that  the  slave  trade  is 
almost  the  only  possible  measure,  the  last  resource  to 
arrest  the  decline  of  the  South  in  the  Union.  They  see 
that  it  would  develop  resources  which  have  slept  for  the 
great  want  of  labor ;  that  it  would  increase  the  total 
area  of  cultivation  in  the  South  to  six  times  what  it  now 
is ;  that  it  would  create  a  demand  for  land,  and  raise  its 
price,  so  as  to  compensate  the  planter  for  the  deprecia 
tion  of  the  slave  ;  that  it  would  admit  the  poor  white 
man  to  thd  advantages  of  our  social  system ;  that  it 


BLACK  DIAMONDS.  53 

would  give  him  dearer  interests  in  the  country  he  loves 
now  only  from  simple  patriotism ;  that  it  would  strengthen 
the  peculiar  institution ;  that  it  would  increase  our  rep 
resentation  in  Congress ;  and  that  it  would  revive  and 
engender  public,  spirit  in  the  South,  suppressed  and 
limited  as  it  now  is  by  the  monopolies  of  land  and  labor. 
But  I  recognize  especially  in  the  proposition  to  re-open 
the  slave  trade,  the  interests  of  the  working  classes 
and  yeomanry  of  the  South.  The  cause  of  the  poor 
white  population  of  the  South  cries  to  Heaven  for  justice. 
We  see  a  people  who  are  devoted  to  their  country,  who 
must  be  intrusted  with  the  defence  of  the  institution  of 
slavery,  if  ever  it  be  assailed  by  violence,  who  would  die  for 
the  South  and  her  institutions,  who,  in  the  defence  of 
these  objects  of  their  patriotism,  would  give  probably  to 
the  world  the  most  splendid  examples  of  courage,  who 
would  lay  down  their  simple  and  hardy  lives  at  the  com 
mand  of  Southern  authorities,  and  who  would  rally 
around  the  standard  of  Southern  honor  in  the  reddest 
crashes  of  the  battle  storm — we  see,  I  say,  such  a  peo 
ple  treated  with  the  most  ungrateful  and  insulting  con 
sideration  by  their  country,  debarred  from  its  social  sys 
tem,  deprived  of  all  share  in  the  benefits  of  the  institu 
tion  of  slavery,  condemned  to  poverty,  and  even  forced 
to  bear  the  airs  of  superiority  in  black  and  beastly  slaves! 
Is  not  this  a  spectacle  to  fire  the  heart !  As  sure  as  Grod 
is  judge  of  my  own  heart,  it  throbs  with  ceaseless  sym- 


54  BLACK  DIAMONDS. 

pathy  for  these  poor,  wronged,  noble  people  ;  and  if  there 
is  a  cause  in  the  world  I  would  be  proud  to  champion,  it 
is  theirs-i-so  help  me  Grod!  it  is  theirs. 

But  you  doubtless  ask,  dear  C.,  to  be  shown  more 
clearly  how  their  condition  is  to  be  reformed  and  elevated 
by  the  slave  trade.  Now  I  calculate,  that  with  the  re-open 
ing  of  this  trade,  imported  negroes  might  be  sold  in  our 
Southern  seaports  at  a  profit,  for  one  hundred  dollars  to 
one  hundred  and  fifty  dollars  a  head.  The  poor  man 
might  then  hope  to  own  a  negro ;  the  prices  of  labor 
would  then  be  brought  within  his  reach  ;  he  would 
be  a  small  farmer  (revolutionizing  the  character  of  agri 
culture  in  the  South) ;  he  would  at  once  step  up  to  a  re 
spectable  station  in  the  social  system  of  the  South ;  and 
with  this  he  would  acquire  a  practical  and  dear  interest 
in  the  general  institution  of  slavery,  that  would  consti 
tute  its  best  protection  both  at  home  and  abroad.  He 
would  no  longer  be  a  miserable,  nondescript  cumberer 
of  the  soil,  scratching  the  land  here  and  there  for  a  sub 
sistence,  living  from  hand  to  mouth,  or  trespassing  along 
the  borders  of  the  possessions  of  the  large  proprietors. 
He  would  be  a  proprietor  himself ;  and  in  the  great  work 
of  developing  the  riches  of  the  soil  of  the  South,  from 
which  he  had  been  heretofore  excluded,  vistas  of  enter 
prise  and  wealth  would  open  to  him  that  would  enliven 
his  heart  and  transform  him  into  another  man.  He 
would  no  longer  bo  the  scorn  and  sport  of  "gentlemen 


BLACK  DIAMONDS.  55 

of  color,"  who  parade  their  superiority,  rub  their 
well-stuffed  black  skins,  and  thank  God  that  they 
are  not  as  he. 

And  here,  dear  C.,  let  me  meet  an  objection  which  has 
been  eloquently  urged  against  the  proposition  to  import 
into  this  country  slaves  from  Africa.  It  is  said  that  our 
slave  population  has  attained  a  wonderful  stage  of  civili 
zation  ;  that  they  have  greatly  progressed  in  refinement 
and  knowledge,  and  that  it  would  be  a  great  pity  to 
introduce  among  them,  from  the  wilds  of  Africa,  a  barba 
rous  element  which  would  have  the  effect  of  throwing 
back  our  Southern  negroes  into  a  more  uncivilized  and 
abject  condition. 

"What  is  pleaded  here  as  an  objection  I  adopt  as  an 
argument  on  my  side  of  the  question — that  is,  in  favor  of 
the  African  commerce.  What  we  want  especially  in 
the  South,  is  that  the  negro  shall  be  brought  down  from 
those  false  steps  which  he  has  been  allowed  to  take  in 
civilization,  and  reduced  to  his  proper  condition  as  a 
slave.  I  have  mentioned  to  you,  dear  C.,  what  an  outrage 
upon  the  feelings  of  poor  white  men,  and  what  a  nuisance 
generally,  the  slave  gentry  of  the  South  is.  It  is  time 
that  all  these  gentlemen  of  color  should  be  reduced  to 
the  uniform  level  of  the  slave ;  and  doubtless  they  would 
soon  disappear  in  the  contact  and  admixture  of  the  rude 
African  stock. 

Most  seriously  do  I  say,  dear  C.,  that  numbers  of  the 


56  BLACK  DIAMONDS. 

negro  slaves  of  the  South  display  a  refinement  and 
an  ease  which  do  not  suit  their  condition,  and  which 
contrast  most  repulsively  with  the  hard  necessities  of 
many  of  the  whites.  I  have  often  wished  that  the  abo 
litionists,  instead  of  hunting  out  among  the  swamps  and 
in  the  raggedest  parts  of  the  South,  some  poor,  exceptional 
victim  to  the  brutality  of  a  master,  and  parading  such  a 
case  as  an  example  of  slavery,  would  occasionally  show, 
as  a  picture  of  the  institution,  some  of  the  slave  gentry, 
who  are  to  be  found  anywhere  in  the  cities,  towns,  and 

« 

on  the  large  farms  of  the  South,  leading  careless,  lazy, 
and  impudent  lives,  treating  white  freemen  with  super 
ciliousness  if  they  happen  to  be  poor,  and  disporting 
themselves  with  airs  of  superiority  or  indifference  before 
everybody  who  does  not  happen  to  be  their  particular 
master.  Pictures  drawn  as  equally  from  this  large  class 
of  our  slave  population,  as  from  the  more  abject,  would, 
I  am  sure,  soon  convert  some  of  your  Northern  notions 
of  the  institution  of  slavery. 

I  must  admit  to  you  that  I  have  the  most  repulsive 
feelings  toward  negro  gentlemen.  When  I  see  a  slave 
above  his  condition,  or  hear  him  talk  insultingly  of  even 
the  lowest  white  man  in  the  land,  I  am  strongly  tempt 
ed  to  knock  him  down.  Whenever  Mrs.  Lively  tells 
her  very  gentlemanly  dining-room  servant  that  he  car 
ries  his  head  too  high,  I  make  it  a  point  to  agree  with 
her ;  and  whenever  she  threatens  to  have  him  "  taken 


BLACK    DIAMONDS.  57 

down  a  button-hole  lower,"  I  secretly  wish  that  I  had 
that  somewhat  mysteriously  expressed  task  to  perform 
myself.  Of  all  things  I  cannot  hear  to  see  negro  slaves 
affect  superiority  over  the  poor,  needy,  and  unsophisti 
cated  whites,  who  form  a  terribly  large  proportion 
of  the  population  of  the  South.  My  blood  boils  when  I 
recall  how  often  I  have  seen  some  poor  "  cracker," 
dressed  in  striped  cotton,  and  going  through  the  streets 
of  some  of  our  Southern  towns,  gazing  at  the  shop 
windows  with  scared  curiosity,  made  sport  of  by  the 
sleek,  dandified  negroes  who  lounge  on  the  streets, 
never  unmindful,  however,  to  touch  their  hats  to  the 
"  gem'men  "  who  are  "  stiff  in  their  heels,"  (i.  e.  have 
money) ;  or  to  the  counter-hoppers  and  fast  young  gents 
with  red  vests  and  illimitable  jewelry,  for  whom  they 
pimp.  And  consider  that  this  poor,  uncouth  fellow, 
thus  laughed  at,  scorned  and  degraded  in  the  estimate 
of  the  slave,  is  a  freeman,  beneath  whose  humble  garb 
is  a  heart  richer  than  gold — the  heart  of  a  mute  hero, 
of  one  who  wears  the  proud,  though  pauper,  title  of  the 
patriot  defender  of  the  South. 

I  love  the  simple  and  unadulterated  slave,  with  his 
geniality,  his  mirth,  his  swagger,  and  his  nonsense ;  I 
love  to  look  upon  his  countenance,  shining  with  content 
and  grease  ;  I  love  to  study  his  affectionate  heart ;  I 
love  to  mark  that  peculiarity  in  him,  which  beneath  all 
his  buffoonery  exhibits  him  as  a  creature  of  the  tender- 


58  BLACK    DIAMONDS. 

est  sensibilities,  mingling  his  joys  and  his  sorrows  with 
those  of  his  master's  home.  It  is  of  such  slaves  that  I 
have  endeavored,  in  the  preceding  letters,  to  draw  some 
feeble  pictures.  But  the  "  genteel "  slave,  who  is  in 
oculated  with  white  notions,  affects  superiority,  and  ex 
changes  his  simple  and  humble  ignorance  for  insolent 
airs,  is  altogether  another  creature,  and  my  especial 
abomination. 

I  have  no  horror,  dear  C.,  of  imported  savage  slaves 
from  Africa.  I  have  no  doubt  that  they  would  prove 
tractable,  and  that  we  would  find  in  them,  or 
would  soon  develop,  the  same  traits  of  courage,  humor, 
and  tenderness,  which  distinguish  the  character  of  the 
pure  negro  everywhere. 

When  I  was  last  through  the  country  here,  I  made 
the  acquaintance  of  a  very  old  "Guinea  negro,"  Pom- 
pey  by  name,  who  had  been  imported  at  an  early  age 
from  the  African  coast ;  and  a  livelier,  better-dispo- 
sitioncd  and  happier  old  boy  I  have  never  met  with. 
*  The  only  marks  of  African  extraction  which  Pompey 
retained  in  his  old  age,  were  that  he  would  talk  Guinea 
"  gibberish  "  when  he  got  greatly  excited,  and  that  he 
used  occasionally  some  curious  spells  and  superstitious 
appliances,  on  account  of  which  most  of  the  negroes 
esteemed  him  a  great  "  conjurer."  Pompey  is  a 
very  queer  old  fellow,  and  his  appearance  and  won 
derful  stories  inspire  the  young  with  awe.  He  looks 


BLACK    DIAMONDS.  59 

like  a  little,  withered  old  boy ;  and  the  long,  fantastic 
naps  of  his  wool  give  him  a  mysterious  air.  According 
to  his  story,  he  once  travelled  to  Chili  through  a  subter 
ranean  passage  of  thousands  of  miles.  He  also  is  occa 
sionally  bribed  to  exhibit  to  his  young  mass'rs,  the  im 
pression  of  a  ring  around  his  body,  apparently  produced 
by  the  hug  of  a  good  strong  rope,  but  which  he  solemn 
ly  avers  was  occasioned  by  his  having  stuck  midway  in 
a  keyhole,  when  the  evil  witches  were  desperately  at 
tempting  to  draw  him  through  that  aperture. 

Pompey  had  married  a  "  genteel"  slave  woman,  a 
maid  to  an  old  lady  of  one  of  the  first  families  of  Caro 
lina,  and  lived  very  unhappily  with  his  fine  mate,  be 
cause  she  could  not  understand  "  black  folks'  ways." 
It  appears  that  Pompey  frequently  had  recourse  to  the 
black  art  to  inspire  his  wife  with  more  affection  for  him  ; 
and  having  in  his  hearing  dropped  the  remark,  joking 
ly,  one  day,  that  a  good  whipping  made  a  mistress  love 
her  lord  the  more,  I  was  surprised  to  hear  Pompey  speak 
up  suddenly,  and  with  solemn  emphasis,  "Mass'r  Ed'rd, 
I  bleve  dar  is  sumthin'  in  dat.  When  de  'ooman  get 
ambitious" — he  means  high-notioned  and  passionate — 
"  de  debble  is  sot  up  against  you,  and  no  use  to  honey 
dat  chile  ;  you  jest  got  to  beat  him  out,  and  he  bound 
to  come  out  'fore  the  breath  come  out,  anyhow."  I  am 
inclined  to  recommend  Pompey's  treatment  for  all  "am 
bitious  "  negroes,  male  or  female. 


60  BLACK    DIAMONDS. 


way  of  parenthesis,  I  must  tell  you  how  Pom- 
pey's  mistress  scolds  him.  He  is  so  much  of  a  boy, 
that  she  has  imperceptibly  adopted  a  style  of  quizzing 
him  and  holding  him  up  to  ridicule,  to  which  he  is  very 
sensitive.  I  will  just  note  the  following  passage  be 
tween  the  two  :  In  the  absence  of  the  butler,  Pompey 
is  sometimes  called  to  the  solemn  office  of  waiting  on 
the  table,  at  which  elevation  he  is  greatly  pleased. 
Imagine  the  scene  of  a  staid  and  orderly  breakfast,  at 
tending  on  which  is  Pompey,  having  a  waiter  tucked  with 
great  precision  under  his  arm,  and  presenting  the  appear 
ance  of  a  most  complacent  self  consequence.  Unluckily, 
however,  making  some  arrangement  in  the  pantry,  he 
produces  a  nervous  jostle  of  china.  "  Pompey,  Pom 
pey,"  cries  his  mistress,  "  what  are  you  doing?  Ah, 
Pompey,  you  are  playing  with  the  little  mice,  ain't 
you  ?"  Pompey,  in  a  fluster  of  mortification  at  this 
accusation,  denies  playing  with  "  little  mice."  Ah,  yes, 
Pompey,  I  know  you  want  to  have  a  little  play  —  here, 
Martha,  Sally,  take  Pompey  out  into  the  yard  and  let 
him  play."  The  two  maid-servants  approach  poor  old 
uncle  Pompey  in  a  most  serious  manner,  to  take  him 
out  to  -play,  but  he  shoves  them  aside,  and  crestfallen, 
and  with  bashful  haste,  retreats  from  the  room;  while 
the  two  women  solemnly  keep  alongside  of  him,  as  if 
really  intent  upon  the  fulfilment  of  the  orders  of  their 


BtACK    DIAMONDS.  61 

mistress,  to  put  the  old  fellow  through  a  course  of  gam 
bolling  on  the  green. 

Pompey  is  greatly  cut  up  by  such  scoldings  ;  and  to 
be  made  a  jest  of  before  the  genteeler  and  more  precise 
servants,  is  his  especial  punishment  and  pain  in  this 
world. 

I  must  confess  for  myself  a  strong  participation  in 
Pompey 's  contempt  for  "  town  niggers."  Whenever  he 
espies  a  sable  aristocrat,  he  uses  the  strongest  expression 
of  disgust,  "  dam  jumpy  fish,"  etc. ;  and  then  he  will 
discourse  of  how  a  good  nigger  should  do  his  work 
soberly  and  faithfully,  illustrating  the  lesson  always  by 
indicating  what  he  does,  while  Henry,  a  more  favored 
slave,  has  nothing,  according  to  Pompey's  account,  to 
do,  but  to  recline  in  an  easy  chair  and  eat  "  cake."  I 
agree  with  Pompey,  as  to  what  constitutes  a  useful  and 
respectable  negro,  and  tell  him'  that  we  shall  soon  have 
some  such  from  the  country  from  which  he  came,  at 
which  prospect  he  is  greatly  pleased.  "  Ah,  Mass'r," 
says  he,  "  dat  is  de  nigger  dat  can  do  your  work  ;  he 
de  chile  dat  can  follow  arter  the  beast,  like  dis  here," 
tugging  away  and  gee-hawing  while  he  speaks,  at  the 
hard  mouth  of  a  stupid  mule,  with  which  he  is  plowing 
in  the  garden.  "  But  I  tells  you  what,  Mass'r  Ed'rd," 
continues  Pompey,  impressively,  "  no  matter  how  de 
dam  proud  black  folks  hold  der  head  up,  and  don't  love 
de  mule,  and  don't  love  de  work,  and  don't  love  nothing 


62 


BLACK    DIAMONDS. 


but  de  ownselves,  I  tells  you  what,  I  ain't  but  nigger 
nohow ;  and  I  tells  you,  and  I  tells  'em  all,  de  nigger 
and  de  mule  am  de  axle-tree  of  de  world." 

The  truth  is,  my  dear  friend,  we  want  more  such 
slaves  in  the  South  as  Pompey,  who  while  they  can 
speak  such  honest  and  brilliant  sentiments,  will  also  be 
as  humble  in  their  hearts  and  as  faithful  to  their  work 
as  he,  and  who  will  sustain  the  car  of  progress  over  all 
obstacles  in  the  path  of  Southern  destiny. 

Yours  truly,  E.  A.  p. 

To  D.  M.  C.,  Esq.,  New-York. 


LETTER    V. 

CHARLESTON,  SOUTH  CAROLINA,  1858. 

MY  DEAR  C :     In  your  rejoinder  to  my  letter  on 

the  subject  of  the  slave  trade,  which  was  touched  upon  but 
lightly  and  incidentally,  you  charge  me  with  preaching 
"  disunion  doctrine,"  and  say,  that  "  I  have  overlooked 
the  political  consequences  to  this  country  of  re-opening 
the  African  trade,"  and  that  "the  first  consideration 
should  be,  that  this  commerce  could  not  be  opened  with 
out  risking  the  Union."  I  cannot,  dear  C.,  rest  in  silence 
under  the  charge  of  paying  no  regard  in  my  recom 
mendations  for  the  legalization  of  the  slave  trade,  to  the 
peril  in  which  it  may  place  the  permanency  of  the  Union, 
especially  when  I  am  confident,  if  my  memory  does  not 


BLACK    DIAMONDS.  63 

greatly  deceive  me,  of  having  suggested  in  my  former 
letter  (which  you  read  cursorily,  I  suppose)  that  this 
commerce,  by  strengthening  and  satisfying  the  South, 
would  confirm  the  bonds  by  which  the  two  sections  are 
united.  I  shall  therefore  vary  somewhat  from  the  origi 
nal  design  of  the  correspondence,  not  indeed  to  go  into 
a  political  discussion,  but  to  call  your  attention  to  the 
relation  which  the  proposition  to  re-open  the  slave  trade, 
or  the  general  proposition  to  strengthen  and  develop  the 
South  by  new  systems  of  labor,  bears  to  the  always  in 
teresting  question  of  the  perpetuation  of  "  the  glorious 
Union." 

But  in  the  first  place,  my  dear  friend,  I  must  say  that 
I  do  not  agree  with  your  judgment,  that  the  slave  trade 
cannot  be  re-opened  by  us  except  by  infraction  of  our 
statute  and  treaty  law.  I  contend,  on  the  contrary,  that 
the  commerce  in  African  labor  can  be  carried  on  under 
the  permission  of  existing  laws.  Observe  that  the 
African  may  be  imported  of  his  own  will,  as  an  appren 
tice,  for  any  number  of  years  ;  and  when  he  arrives  in 
the  South,  what  is  there  to  prevent  him  (although  you 
say  he  cannot  alienate  his  liberty)  from  accepting  induce 
ments  to  live  in  bondage  ?  This  I  grant  you,  would  be 
practically  the  re-opening  of  the  African  slave  trade  ; 
but  where  exists  the  law  that  can  suppress  a  trade  which 
buys  labor,  not  liberty,  and  which  is  really,  in  a  legal 
point  of  view,  conducted  on  the  basis  of  enfranchise- 


64  BLACK    DIAMONDS. 

ment.  You  may  cry  out  that  this  is  an  evasion  of  the 
law  ;  and  I  will  simply  answer,  that  you  will  find  that 
it  very  often  becomes  necessary  to  evade  the  letter  of 
the  law  in  some  of  the  greatest  measures  of  social  hap 
piness  and  patriotism. 

I  sincerely  believe,  dear  C.,  that  with  the  slave  trade 
movement,  rests  in  a  measure  the  great  political  problem 
of  the  day,  viz. :  the  just  elevation  of  the  general  con 
dition  of  the  South,  as  an  integral  part  of  the  Federal 
Union. 

It  is  evident  that  the  great  want  of  the  South  is  a 
sufficiency  of  labor.  Certainly  no  equal  part  of  the 
globe  can  vie  in'  sources  of  wealth  with  the  belt  of  cot 
ton  territory  in  America,  which,  it  is  estimated,  is  ca 
pable  of  producing  twenty  millions  of  bales  of  the  snowy 
fleece  of  modern  commerce.  Add  to  this  the  consider 
ation,  that  within  the  borders  of  the  South,  owing  to 
the  singular  advantages  of  a  climate  that  partakes  of  an 
inter-tropical  temperature,  and  enjoys  in  its  change  of 
seasons  the  peculiarities  of  the  temperate  zone,  is  a 
country  capable  of  a  greater  variety  of  crop  and  agri 
cultural  product,  than  any  other  territory  of  equal  size 
on  the  face  of  the  globe.  To  develop  this  occult  wealth ; 
to  introduce  on  the  soil  the  many  varieties  of  tropical 
vegetation  of  which  it  is  capable — the  olive,  the  cam 
phor,  and  the  cork  tree  ;  to  bring  into  cultivation  the 
thirty  thousand  square  miles  of  cotton-producing  land, 


BLACK    DIAMONDS.  65 

which  is  now  lying  unproductive  ;  to  multiply  by  almost 
infinite  processes  the  product  of  our  great  staple,  which 
now,  under  all  disadvantages,  is  said  to  increase,  accord 
ing  to  an  average  calculation,  three  per  cent.,  or  about 
eighty  thousand  bales  annually  ;  to  expand  our  agricul 
ture  and  infuse  into  it  new  spirit ;  and  to  make  the 
golden  age  of  the  most  splendid  fables  of  historyxour 
own,  there  are  but  wanting  labor  and  the  energy  to  em 
ploy  and  direct  it.  To  attain  this  desideratum  we  have 
no  other  hope  except  the  importation  of  labor  from 
Africa. 

The  proposition  to  re-open  the  slave  trade  may  be 
most  truly  characterized  as  a  measure  to  strengthen  and 
elevate  the  South  in  the  Union  ;  and  this  being  the  con 
dition  of  the  perpetuation  of  the  Union  to  us,  as  em 
phatically  a  conservative  policy.  In  brief,  dear  C.,  the 
slave  trade  proposition  means  Union  and  conservatism. 

The  policy  which  I  avow  is,  that  the  South  shall 
secure  to  herself  the  utmost  amount  of  prosperity  and 
strengthen  herself  in  the  Union,  which,  as  sure  as  the  gen 
tle  hastenings-on  of  time,  can  only  be  preserved  on  this 
condition.  This  policy,  then — the  only  one  to  save  the 
Union — even  if  adopting  extremest  measures,  is  ever 
the  truly  "  conservative  "  one. 

I  must  confess  to  you,  that  I  have  the  greatest  contempt 
for  that  time-serving  and  shallow  policy  of  many  false 
politicians  in  our  section,  who  decry  a  measure  of  South- 


66  BLACK    DIAMONDS. 

ern  patriotism,  in  order  to  conserve  our  party  interest  in 
the  North.  I  refer  to  the  counsels  of  a  certain  class  of 
politicians,  who  tell  us  that  our  party  alliance  at  the 
North  will  be  hazarded  by  free  discussion  at  the  South, 
and  that  it  is  to  be  cemented  by  our  abandonment  of 
the  proposition  to  re-open  the  slave  trade.  Now.  [  truly 
honor  our  democratic  allies  in  the  North  ;  but  as  a 
Southerner,  I  am  not  disposed  (and  I  am  sure,  dear  C., 
for  one  you  would  not  demand  of  me)  to  sacrifice  to  their 
prejudices  any  measure  of  domestic  policy  which  it  is 
at  once  our  right  and  our  paramount  duty  to  decide  on 
for  ourselves.  "Was  the  South  to  yield  up  Kansas  "  for 
the  sake  of  the  party  ?"  Is  this  the  beginning  of  the 
end  ?  As  Gr(>d  is  my  judge,  I  forswear,  forever,  this 
false  policy  in  the  South,  to  sacrifice  any  interest  of  hers 
to  the  consolidation  or  prestige  of  a  party. 

To  the  policy  to  strengthen  a  party,  I  would  place  in 
antithesis  the  policy  to  strengthen  the  South. 

The  South,  my  dear  C.,  is  approaching  a  critical  stage 
in  her  political  history,  when  she  must  act,  if  ever,  for 
herself.  The  tendency  to  her  enslavement,  ruin,  and 
dishonor,  must  be  avoided  by  constitutional  measures, 
or  changes  of  domestic  policy.  The  question  is,  how  can 
the  Union  be  preserved  under  the  sanctities  of  the  Con 
stitution,  and  on  terms  of  equal  rights  and  equal  advan 
tages — how  can  the  decline  of  the  South  be  arrested — 
how  can  she  be  saved  ?  She  has  now  no  means  to  de- 


BLACK    DIAMONDS.  67 

velop  her  resources  pan  passu  with  the  rapid  progress, 
in  this  respect,  of  the  North  ;  she  is  unable,  from  want 
of  labor,  to  expand  her  agriculture,  or  to  follow  where 
enterprise  beckons ;  her  public  spirit  wanes  under  her 
disabilities,  and  her  constant  sense  of  dependence  on  the 
markets  and  manufactures  of  the  North ;  she  is  being 
constantly  weakened  by  parity  identifications  ;  her  politi 
cal  prestige  is  gone  ;  her  peculiar  institution  has  to 
bear  a  burden  of  censure,  under  which,  even  the  best 
men  of  the  South  think  it  must  sink,  unless  strength 
ened  by  new  measures ;  the  common  territories  of  the 
Republic  are  being  steadily  closed  to  it ;  the  black  lines 
of  free-soilism,  hi  which  it  must  languish  and  die,  are 
being  drawn  around  it,  and  the  dregs  of  the  poison  cup 
are  at  our  lips.  In  all  plainness,  what  is  to  become  of 
the  South,  if  she  is  to  remain  in  the  Union  without  a 
change  of  policy  ?  How  is  she  to  fulfil  the  necessities 
of  progress  and  self-development,  unless  means  to  do  so 
are  provided  by  herself  ?  How  is  she  to  be  rescued  from 
the  fate  which  she  has  brought  upon  herself,  and  which 
now  impends  ?  The  Democratic  party  cannot  save  her. 
The  President  cannot  save  her.  She  must  save  herself  ? 
Will  she  do  it  ?  Let  every  patriot  of  the  South 
answer  for  himself.  Let  him  resolve  that  she  shall  not 
be  argued  into  repose.  Let  him  resolve  that  the  inven 
tions  of  policy  to  restore  her  strength,  and  at  once  raise 
and  confirm  her  in  the  Union,  shall  not  be  hooted  out  by 


68  BLACK  DIAMONDS. 

party  cries  of  "  peace !"  Let  him  resolve  that  she  shall 
not  rest  in  the  supine  embrace  of  party  alliances.  Let 
him  resolve  that  she  shall  be  called  to  the  necessity  of 
strengthening  herself  by  independent  measures  of  pros 
perity  and  power,  within  the  terms,  as  such  a  policy 
must  be,  of  honorable  rivalry  and  of  the  Constitution. 

Nor  shall  we,  patriots  of  the  South,  despair  of  the 
result !  Rather  would  we  turn  from  the  panic  fears  of 
disunion  to  the  hopes  of  victory  in  new  measures  of 
Southern  independence.  For  myself,  I  respect  disunion 
only  for  its  sincerity  of  motive  ;  commended  as  it  is,  too, 
by  many  minds,  and  actuated  as  it  may  be  by  a  gener 
ous  spirit ;  but  alas  !  one 

"  Turned  aside 
From  its  bright  course  by  woes  and  wrongs  and  pride."        . 

And  yet,  dear  C.,  I  regard  disunion  as  unconsciously  in 
volving  a  moral  cowardice,  which  puts  to  blush  the 
courage  of  our  land.  Let  the  South,  say  I,  stand  or  fall 
by  the  Constitution !  True  courage  would  dictate  this 
course,  even  if  the  hope  of  ultimate  victory,  in  the  fact  of 
the  South's  holding  the  balance  of  political  power,  did  not 
commend  it.  The  hard-fought  field  of  constitutional 
contest  should  not  be  forsaken  by  the  South  for  shelter 
beneath  a  divided  flag  ;  but  the  battle  should  be  contin 
ued  with  the  same  weapons,  while  new  exertions  should 
bo  put  forth  to  conquer  by  the  power  of  the  Constitution. 
"We  see,  indeed,  the  necessity  of  following  up  each  vie- 


BLACK    DIAMONDS.  69 

tory,  and  of  devising  new  measures  of  Southern  advan 
tage  and  development ;  and  to  this  necessity  and  its  de 
mand  of  a  new  policy,  let  us,  ye  true  men  of  the  South, 
God  helping  us,  be  true !  But  disunion  is  not  a  neces 
sity.  No !  not  a  necessity  as  long  as  patriots  still  keep 
the  field  under  the  banner  of  the  Constitution;  and  the 
prize  of  valor  there  is  the  victory  of  PEACE. 

Yours  truly,  E.  A.  p. 

To  D.  M.  C.  Esq.,  New  York. 


LETTER   VI. 

OAKRIDGE,   VIRGINIA,  1858. 

MY  DEAR  C :  The  last  lines  I  sent  you  from  dear 

old  Virginia,  from  the  retirement  of  Briarcliff,  were 
written  in  one  of  my  fits  of  meditation,  and  I  fear  con 
veyed  you  but  little  of  interest  concerning  my  visit  to 
the  old  familiar  haunts  of  earlier  days. 

I  have  since  been  making  a  round  of  visits  to  "  the 
kin,"  and  I  have  been  travelling  most  of  the  way  on  a 
canal-boat,  at  the  rate  of  four  miles  an  hour.  Rather 
slow  progress,  surely ;  but  I  have  not  lacked  for 
pastime.  In  the  first  place,  I  had  to  wait  for  "  the 
packet,"  as  the  codgers  call  it,  at  a  solitary  "lock- 
house,"  where  a  bed  could  not  be  had  for  love  or  money, 
from  night-fall  until  3  o'clock  next  morning.  But  then 


70  BLACK  DIAMONDS. 

I  had  some  charming  companions  in  my  vigils.  A 
sweet,  gentle  lady,  with  her  little  boy,  was  there,  and 
with  agreeable  and  modest  conversafion  beguiled  the 
hours ;  and  this  lady,  who  kept  her  uncomplaining 
watch  in  the  rude  cabin,  and  who  was  dressed  so  plain 
ly,  and  who  even  deigned  to  enter  into  the  fun  of  a  com 
pany  of  boisterous  humbly-born  girls,  who  also  occupied 
the  room,  was,  as  I  learned,  the  next  morning,  really  one 
of  the  F.  F.  Vs,  for  she  was  met  at  the  lock  where  she 
landed  by  her  father,  whom  I  at  once  recognized  as  one 
of  the  most  distinguished  politicians  and  gentlemen  of 
the  Old  Dominion.  She  did  not  even  forget  to  say  fare 
well  to  the  boisterous  "Bet"  and  her  torn-boy  com 
panions,  who  had  so  vexed  the  drowsy  ear  of  the  night 
before. 

The  boat-horn  wailed  out  as  the  locks  opened,  and  as 
I  glided  down  the  big,  dirty  ditch  along  the  James,  I 
turned  for  consolation  to  Bet,  who  in  all  the  charms  of 
rural  beauty,  was  watching  from  the  deck  the  scenery 
of  the  canal. 

Bet  was  a  rural  curiosity,  indeed — a  pretty,  coarse, 
and  very  ungrammatical  girl,  whose  chief  amusement 
the  night  before  had  been  surreptitiously  emptying 
gourds  of  water  over  the  heads  of  her  drowsy  compan 
ions.  Bet  had  been  quite  sociable  with  me  through  the 
night ;  but  now  that  she  was  aboard  the  packet,  she 
treated  me  with  disdainful  coolness.  Approaching 


BLACK  DIAMONDS.  71 

her,  I  hazarded  the  old  hackneyed  remark  of  canal 
travelling,  that  "  I  hoped  Miss  Bet  was  not  suffering 
from  sea-sickness."  "  No,  she  warn't  sick  a  bit."  A 
pause,  and  then  I  ventured  to  ask  "if  Miss  Bet  pro 
ceeded  as  far  as  Richmond."  "No,  it  was  too  furrer? 
The  cause  of  her  reticence  and  disdain  was  soon  dis 
covered.  I  found,  to  my  discomfiture,  that  Bet  had 
recognized  an  old  beau  in  the  steersman,  whose  city 
manners  and  glass  and  copper  jewelry  had  quite  ex 
tinguished  me  in  her  eyes.  A  dog-eared  album  told  the 
story  plainly.  The  following  tribute  I  managed  to 
transcribe  literally,  as  with  slow  and  jealous  delibera 
tion,  I  turned  over  the  leaves  of  the  record  of  Miss  Bet's 
charms  and  conquests : 

"  "When  I  from  tliee,  dear  maid,  shall  part, 
Shall  leave  a  sting  in  each  other's  hearts, 
I  to  some  grove  shall  make  my  moan, 
Lie  down,  and  die,  as  some  has  done. 

(Signed)  "  PHIL.  TOOLKY." 

At  last  I  reached  my  point  of  disembarkation,  and  I 
summarily  dismiss  Bet  from  my  mind.  I  see  again  the 
beautiful  mountains  of  the  Blue  Ridge  in  the  distance, 
and  the  woods  stretching  far  away  across  level  plains 
to  their  base.  How  lovely  it  all  looked,  especially  when 
with  the  whole  scene  were  associated  a  thousand  mem 
ories.  In  my  ^childhood  I  had  looked  upon  these  dis 
tant  peaks,  and  wondered  about  them.  How  much 


72  BLACK  DIAMONDS. 

nearer  and  smaller  they  appeared  now  than  when  I  saw 
them  through  the  eyes  of  youth! — yet  still  beautiful, 
ever  pointing  through  sunlight  and  through  cloud  to 
heaven,  ever  unchanging  in  their  robes  of  blue,  ever 
putting  on  at  the  same  hours  the  purple  and  gilt  of 


evening  ! 


Having  landed  at  W village,  I  prepare  to  pur 
sue  my  journey  on  horseback.  I  disembark  with  an  old 
gentleman,  who,  in  the  course  of  the  voyage,  had  managed 
to  convey  to  me  the  information  that  he  was  a  judge  from 
Alabama,  and  had  travelled  a  thousand  miles  on  the 
"  steam  cars,"  and  who  had  delighted  the  whole  boat's 
crew  and  company  with  his  learning  and  sententious- 
ness,,  having  advanced  in  a  learned  geological  discussion 
in  the  cabin  of  the  canal  boat  "  that  the  vein  of  water 
was  like  the  human  vein,"  which  illustration  summari 
ly  closed  all  argument  as  to  the  distribution  of  subter 
ranean  waters.  The  old  fellow  was  sound  on  the  liquor 
question  though,  and  proved  himself  "  a  judge"  of 
good  whiskey  before  retiring  to  his  virtuous  couch  in  the 
old  "  Rock  Tavern."  The  sun  was  high  when  the  black 
boy  "Washington"  roused  me  from  my  slumbers. 
Having  bestowed  "  a  quarter "  on  Washington,  in 
abundant  gratitude  for  which  he  wished  to  know  "  if 
mass'r  didn't  want  his  footses  washed  " — an  ablution 
which  the  slaves  of  Virginia  constantly  perform  for  their 
masters  with  little  noggins  of  warm  water — I  took  up 


BLACK  DIAMONDS.  73 

my  journey  along  the  old,  red  clayey  road  to  the  local 
habitation  of  my  dear,  respected  old  uncle.  Here  I 
spent  a  few  days  of  delightful  happiness,  especially  in 
company  with  my  pretty  cousin  with  the  Roman  name. 
But  having  found  out  that  kissing  cousins  was  no  long 
er  fashionable  in  Virginia,  and  that  it  excited  my  dear 
aunt's  nerves,  with  one  last  lingering  kiss  of  the  sweet 
lips,  I  had  my  little  leather  Chinese  trunk  packed  on 
the  head  of  a  diminutive  darkey,  and  again  embarked 
upon  the  James  river  and  Kanawha  canal. 

After  a  round  of  visits  to  others  of  "the  kin,"  I  at  last 
find  myself  the  guest  of  that  most  excellent  and  be 
loved  old  lady,  Miss  R.,  and  strolling  about  over  the 
beautiful  lawns  and  green  affluent  fields  of  Oakridge 
farm. 

In  the  bright  day,  with  the  light  and  shade  chasing 
each  other  over  the  fields  where  I  wandered  in  youth,  I 
recall  many  a  laughing  and  many  a  sorrowing  memory. 
I  cannot  write  of  all  these.  I  must  pursue  the  sketch 
of  the  slave,  which  is,  indeed  the  prominent  figure  in 
the  early  associations  of  all  home-bred  sons  of  the 
South. 

I  find  the  old,  familiar,  black  faces  about  the  house. 
Uncle  Jeames,  the  dining-room  servant,  is  an  old,  de 
cayed  family  negro,  wearing  a  roundabout,  and  remark 
able  for  an  unctuous  bald  head,  unadorned  by  hat  or  cap. 
Miss  R.,  who  has  known  him  since  he  was  a  boy,  still 


74  BLACK     DIAMONDS. 

addresses  him  by  the  name  of  "  Jimboo."  Uncle  Jimboo 
has  a  good  deal  of  slave-pride,  and  is  anxious  to  appear 
to  visitors  as  one  of  great  dignity  and  consequence  in 
household  affairs.  He  is  especially  proud  of  his  position 
as  general  conservator  of  the  order  and  security  of  the 
household,  and  any  interruption  of  his  stilted  dignity  is 
very  painful  to  him.  Devoted  to  his  mistress,  he  assumes 
the  office  of  her  protector.  Having  in  one  of  his  winter 
patrols,  according  to  his  account,  been  chased  by  some 
forgotten  number  of  "black  bars,"  and  having  valiantly 
whipped  "  the  king  bar,"  and  put  the  others  to  flight,  it 
remains  that  he  is  afraid  of  nothing  in  the  world  u  but  a 
gun." 

Peace  to  Uncle  Jimboo!  May  his  days  never  be  short 
ened  by  the  accidents  of  his  valiant  service!  I  can 
never  expect  to  see  the  old  man  again  ;  he  is  passing 
away ;  but,  thanks  to  God,  he,  the  slave,  has  not  to  go 
down  to  the  grave  in  a  gloomy  old  age,  poverty-stricken 
and  forgotten  ;  he  has  a  beloved  mistress  near  by  to  pro 
vide  for  him  in  the  evening  of  his  life — a  rare  mistress, 
who,  distinguished  in  her  neighborhood  for  hospitality  and 
munificence,  has  delighted  also  to  adorn  herself  with 
simple  and  unblazoned  charities  to  the  humblest  of  all 
humanity — the  poor,  dependent,  oft-forgotten  slave. 

And  there  is  Tom,  too,  the  hopeful  son  of  Uncle  Jim- 
boo,  a  number  one  boy  of  about  thirty,  splendidly  made, 
and  of  that  remarkable  type  of  comeliness  and  gentility 


BLACK    DIAMONDS.  75 

in  the  negro — an  honest,  jet-black,  with  prominent  and 
sharp-cut  features.  When  I  was  a  boy  I  esteemed  Tom 
to  be  the  best  friend  I  had  in  the  world.  He  was  gene 
rally  employed  as  a  field  hand,  occasionally,  however,  at 
jobs  about  the  yard,  waited  upon  the  table  when  there 
was  "  company,"  and  on  Sundays  he  rode  in  the  capacity 
of  footman  on  the  little  seat  behind  the  old,  high-swung, 
terrapin-backed  carriage  to  church.  I  had  a  great  boyish 
fondness  for  him,  gave  him  coppers,  stole  biscuits  for 
him  from  the  table,  bought  him  a  primer  and  taught 
him  to  read. 

There  appears  to  have  grown  up  a  terrible  rivalry  for 
supremacy  in  the  kitchen  between  Tom  and  his  daddy. 
As  time  progresses,  Uncle  Jimboo  becomes  impressed 
with  the  prospect  of  being  supplanted  by  his  smart  son, 
and,  in  consequence,  he  is  very  jealous  and  depreciatory 
of  Tom.  According  to  the  former's  account,  Tom  is  a 
stupid  boy,  and  is  "good  for  nothing 'cept  meat  and  bread." 
On  the  other  hand,  it  is  quite  shocking  to  witness  Tom's 
disrespect  to  his  ancient  daddy,  whom  he  calls  by  no 
other  name  than  "de  nigger,"  and  whom  he  artfully  rep 
resents  as  "  mighty  shackling,"  and  as  making  the  last 
stage  of  life.  The  parental  relation  is  completely  ignored. 

Here,  too,  lives  Aunt  Judy,  who  is  associated  with  my 
earliest  recollections  of  the  days  of  boyhood.  Especially 
do  I  remember  the  intensity  of  her  religious  sentiment, 
and  how,  for  the  faith  of  every  assertion  that  any  one 

4 


76  BLACK     DIAMONDS. 

ventured  to  dispute,  she  would  appeal  to  the  "judgment 
seat  of  Gr-o-d."  Her  hymns,  her  fairy  tales,  her  tradi 
tions  of  old  Sa-tan,  her  "  shoutihgs  "  at  meeting,  her 
loud  and  ostentatious  prayers  among  the  alder  "bushes 
and  briars  of  the  brook — which  latter  used  to  be  to 
us  boys  a  great  exhibition — are  yet  fresh  in  memory. 
How  well  do  I  remember  the  wonderful  stories,  with 
which  she  used  to  fill  our  youthful  minds  with  awe,  su 
perstition,  and  an  especial  dread  of  being  alone  in  dark 
rooms.  "We  were  told  by  her  of  every  variety  of  ghosts, 
of  witches  that  would  enter  through  the  key-hole  and 
give  us  somnambulic  rides  through  the  thickets  and  bogs, 
and  worse  than  all,  of  awful  and  terrible  visions  that 
had  been  afforded  her  of  the  country  of  the  dead.  She 
had  a  superstitious  interpretation  for  everything  in 
nature.  In  our  childhood  we  were  even  induced  by 
her  to  believe  that  the  little  bird  which  sang  plaintively  to 
our  ears  was  the  transmigrated  soul  of  a  little  child  that 
had  been  the  victim  of  the  cannibalism  of  its  parents, 
and  that  it  was  perpetually  singing  the  following  touch 
ing  words : 

"  My  mammy  kill  me, 
My  daddy  eat  me, 

All  my  brudders  and  sisters  pick  my  bones, 
And  throw  them  under  the  marble  stones." 

Unfortunately,  however,  for  the  credit  of  Aunt  Judy's 
Christianity,  she  was  always  very  passionate,  and  our 
boyish  plaguing  of  her  was  sometimes  replied  to  in  great 


BLACK    DIAMONDS.  77 

* 

bitterness.  Dick,  who  was  always  ahead  in  plaguing, 
had  no  other  name  for  the  old  woman,  who  was  a  great 
exhorter  in  colored  congregations,  but  "  the  Preacher," 
or  sometimes  "  Old  Nat  Turner."  It  was  especially  on 
religious  subjects,  which  we  found  to  be  tender  ones  with 
Aunt  Judy,  that  we  thoughtlessly — but  ah,  how  wrongly 
— delighted  to  tease  and  annoy  her.  Under  pretence  of 
delivering  some  message  from  head-quarters,  Dick  would 
call  to  her  with  an  ordinary  countenance,  and  have  her 
come  very  near  him,  when  he  would  bawl  out,  taking 
to  his  heels  at  the  same  instant,  "  I  say,  Preacher,  what 
text  are  you  going  to  preach  from  to-day."  "  Go  'way, 
boy,"  would  scream  out  Aunt  Judy,  "I  ain't  gwino 
preach  from  nothing  ;  if  you  want  to  hear  preaching, 
go  and  hear  your  own  color." 

All  the  warning  about  the  tragic  fate  of  Nat  Turner 
which  Dick  would  give,  Aunt  Judy  greatly  despised, 
and  would  retaliate  by  asking  that  young  moralist  what, 
when  he  was  "  put  an  the  lef '  -hand,"  which  she  assumed 
as  a  fixed  fact,  he  was  "gwine  to  say  to  black  folks 
preacher  den  ?" 

From  Aunt  Judy's  sentence  of  poor  Dick  it  might  be 
inferred  that  he  was  a  bad  boy.  And  so  he  was,  after 
a  fashion ;  and  I  fear  that  in  this  respect  my  humble 
self  was  only  behind  him  in  years. 

When  I  was  an  eleven-year-old,  "white-headed," 
irascible  little  boy,  Dick,  the  elder  brother,  and  myself 


78  BLACK     DIAMONDS. 

were  perpetually  at  fisticuffs,  and  the  negroes  would 
often  egg  us  on  to  fight  each  other,  which  we  would  do 
in  the  most  passionate  manner.  We  used  to  have  some 
downright  terrible  fights.  Whenever  we  were  captured 
by  some  vigilant  house  servant  in  the  midst  of  hostilities, 
or  were  informed  upon,  we  were  made  to  smart  under 
the  rod,  and  what  was  more  painful  to  the  proud  and 
angry  spirit  of  each,  we  were  made  to  kiss  each  other, 
while  our  beloved  mother  in  vain  spoke  to  us  lessons  of 
brotherly  love.  We  hated  each  other  thoroughly,  I  be 
lieve.  How  curious,  indeed,  are  these  boyish  animosities 
between  brothers,  which  in  progressing  manhood  are  so 
often  converted  into  the  most  passionate  loves! 

How  distinctly,  how  sadly,  do  I  recollect  one  dark, 
cloudy  morning  in  the  years  of  our  boyhood,  when  I  ran 
away  from  home  to  escape  well-deserved  punishment  for 
a  fight  I  had  had  with  Dick.  Ah,  how  painfully  do  we 
revert  to  the  memories  of  youth — the  memories  of  our 
reckless  wounding  of  the  hearts  that  loved  us  best ! 
My  dear  mother  was  at  first  not  disquieted  on  account 
of  my  absence  ;  she  naturally  thought  that  I  had  hid 
myself  somewhere  about  the  yard,  and  would  soon 
return,  sullen  and  slouching,  as  usual,  to  submit  myself 
to  the  punishment  I  so  well  deserved.  But  as  the  morn 
ing  wore  away,  and  I  came  not,  she  became  uneasy. 
Inquiry  for  me  was  set  afoot  among  the  negroes. 
Uncle.  Lewis,  the  cook,  testified  that""  de  last  he  see  of 


BLACK    DIAMONDS.  79 

mass'r  Ed'rd,  he  was  running  straight  down  toward  the 
crik."  My  poor  mother  was  instantly  thrown  into  the 
most  violent  and  heart-rending  anxiety.  The  creek, 
which  was  fed  hy  a  number  of  mountain  streams,  and 
often  overflowed  its  banks,  had  risen,  and  was  still  rising 
from  the  recent  rains ;  and  it  was  certain  that  if  I  had 
attempted  to  cross  the  stream,  which  was  not  improbable, 
as  I  had  often  waded  across  its  shallows  at  ordinary 
times,  I  would  have  been  drowned  in  its  swollen  waters. 
The  painful  fears  of  my  mother  could  not  be  quieted  ; 
they  communicated  themselves  to  those  around  her,  and 
in  an  agony  of  tears  she  ordered  instant  search  to  be 
commenced  for  me  along  the  creek  and  over  all  parts  of 
the  farm.  Many  of  the  negroes  were  mounted  on  horses 
to  scour  the  fields,  and  the  tutor  and  the  whole  school, 
including  brother  Dick,  who  trotted  along  in  tears,  joined 
in  the  search. 

I  was  eventually  discovered,  but  not  until  near  night 
fall,  by  Smith,  the  head  slave,  who  carried  me  home  on 
the  back  of  the  cart  horse,  "Old  Windy  Tom,"  in  spite 
of  my  remonstrances  and  kicking.  He  was  very  short 
to  all  I  had  to  say,  which  was  little,  as  Windy  Tom,  who, 
for  my  particular  punishment  I  believe,  was  kept  in  a 
high  trot  through  the  whole  distance,  jolted  all  argument 
out  of  me.  I  could  only  understand  from  Smith,  that 
my  mother  was  in  a  dangerous  state  from  the  excite 
ment  of  her  grief;  that  I  ought  to  be  "  hooped  all  to 


80 


BLACK     DIAMONDS. 


pieces ; "  and  whenever  I  remonstrated  at  his  restraint 
of  my  liberty,  the  answer  was  that  he  warn't  "  fraid  of 
my  fuss,"  and  that  rny  "mar'  knew  what  he  was  doing 
for  her  and  hern." 

Approaching  the  house  I  heard  cries  of  anguish.  My 
poor  mother  imagining  me  to  be  dead,  was  bewailing  me 
with  all  the  tears  and  agony  of  a  devoted  parent.  Alas, 
how  my  conscience  smote  me !  "With  my  own  cheeks 
wet  with  penitent  tears,  I  presented  myself  to  my  dear 
mother,  who  covered  me  with  embraces  and  kisses,  and 
wept  over  me  with  happy  forgiving  tears. 

Would  to  Grod  I  had  been  made  to  suffer  pain  equiva 
lent  to  what  I  had  inflicted  upon  the  heart  that  loved 
me  best  in  all  this  world !  Going  astray  in  maturer 
life,  wandering  away  among  its  shadows,  selfish,  un 
reflecting,  careless  of  that  watchful  and  searching  love 
which  never  forsakes,  never  forgets,  and  never  ceases  to 
watch  and  pray  for  the  return  of  "  the  son  that  was  lost," 
I  have  found  the  same  easy,  weeping  forgiveness  that 
took  me  into  its  arms  the  dreary  night  that  I  came  home 
from  the  woods.  I  could  offend  and  offend,  ever  in  the 
hope  of  seeking  that  forgiveness  at  the  last,  and  ever 
with  the  cheating  comfort  of  amendment  soon.  One 
being  on  earth  remained  to  fly  to — one  from  whom  to  ob 
tain  forgiveness  again  and  again  as  life  wore  on.  Now — 
oh,  my  Grod,  now  I  can  only  in  tears  look  up  to  the  skies, 
look  to  the  beautiful,  imaging  clouds  of  heaven,  and 


BLACK    DIAMONDS.  81 

beseech  the  forgiveness  of  the  angel-spirit  that  I  see 
there  resting  and  returning  nevermore. 
Yours  truly, 

E.  A.  P. 

To  D.  M.  C.,  Esq.,  N.  Y. 


LETTER    VII. 

BRIARCLIFF,  VIRGINIA,  1858. 

MY  DEAR  C :  In  reflecting  on  the  subject  of 

negro  slavery  in  this  country,  I  have  been  greatly  im 
pressed  by  a  characteristic,  which,  I  think,  has  never 
been  sufficiently  recognized  and  dwelt  upon ;  and  which 
most  honorably  distinguishes  it  from  other  systems  of 
slavery  known  to  the  world.  Consider,  dear  C.,  that  the 
American  institution  of  slavery  does  not  depress  the 
African,  but  elevates  him  in  the  scale  of  social  and  re 
ligious  being.  It  does  not  drag  him  down  from  the  con 
dition  of  free-citizenship  and  from  membership  in  organ 
ized  society  to  slavery ;  but  it  elevates  him  from  the 
condition  of  a  nomad,  a  heathen,  a  brute,  to  that  of  a 
civilized  and  comfortable  creature,  and  gives  to  him  the 
priceless  treasure  of  a  saving  religion.  Other  institu 
tions  of  slavery  are  found,  generally  speaking,  to  rest 
on  systems  of  disenfranchiscment  and  debasement. 
Look,  for  instance,  at  the  Roman  slavery.  Its  victims 
were  obtained  in  war  ;  *they  came  generally  from  the 


82  BLACK    DIAMONDS. 

ranks  of  enemies  as  civilized  as  the  Romans  themselves ; 
or — more  horrible  still — they  came  from  the  ranks  of 
their  own  free  and  co-equal  citizens,  who  might  be  sold 
for  terms  of  years  by  their  parents  in  their  non-age,  or 
by  their  creditors  for  debt.  Thus  their  institution  of 
slavery  was  founded  on  the  debasement  of  man;  it 
was  anti-progressive,  depressing,  barbarous.  How  free 
is  the  American  institution  of  negro  slavery  of  such 
ideas !  It  rests  on  the  solid  basis  of  human  improve 
ment.  And  in  this  respect,  does  its  elevated  spirit  con 
cur  with  the  progress  of  civilization  and  of  the  religion 
of  Christ,  that,  like  the  winds  of  Heaven,  moves  in  its 
mysterious  ways,  gathers  on  its  wings  to  and  fro,  and 
never  is  at  rest.  v 

Surely,  Ood  proceeds  mysteriously  to  us  in  His  works 
of  IOVB  and  redemption.  While  missionary  efforts  have 
proved,  generally,  so  unavailing  in  the  conversion  of  the 
heathen,  we  find  great  institutions  and  events  in  the 
common  history  of  humanity  used  as  instruments  in 
the  enlarging  work  of  the  redemption  of  man.  We 
discover  this  in  all  that  we  know  of  human  progress. 
The  translation  of  African  savages  from  their  country  as 
slaves— a  great,  improving  and  progressive  work  of  human 
civilization — we  also  discover  to  be  one  of  the  largest 
works  of  Christianity,  endowing  a  people  with  a  knowledge 
of  the  Christian  God,  and  they,  in  turn,  enlightening  us 
as  to  His  Grace,  and  the  solemn  and  precious  mystery 


BLACK    DIAMONDS.  83 

of  the  conversion  of  the  soul  to  Christ.  The  work  of 
gathering  to  Christ  goes  on,  through  all  the  tumults  of 
the  world,  and  notwithstanding  its  contempt  of  God's 
means  and  its  own  vainglory.  Many  developments  in 
history,  however  unmerciful  to  our  eyes,  may  be  seen  to 
be  turned  to  the  glory  of  God  :  and  all  our  prosperity  and 
progress  is  taxed  for  the  completion  of  the  work  of  the 
redemption  of  the  world.  On,  on  speeds  and  gathers  the 
work  in  the  changes  of  dynasties,  in  the  founding  of  hu 
man  institutions,  in  the  intercommunications  between 
nations,  and  in  all  the  consummations  of  man's  power  on 
earth.  Already  it  is  said  that  the  problems  of  the  world 
— the  political  and  social  problems,  and  with  them  the 
great  problem  of  Christ's  religion,  are  to  be  aided  to 
their  solution  by  the  swiftest  and  most  sovereign  agent 
that  science  has  discovered  in  the  world's  domain — the 
electric  current.  Already  may  we  declare  glory  to  the 
Most  High,  and  prophesy — oh,  with  what  beautiful 
strangeness — that  the  lightnings,  the  home  of  which 
verse  and  the  unwritten  poetry  of  our  natures  have 
placed  fast  by  the  Throne  of  God,  shall  be  sent  on  the 
missions  of  His  love  to  all  the  nations  of  the  earth. 

But  to  return.  I  think  the  remarkable  characteristic 
of  our  "peculiar  institution,"  in  improving  the  African 
race  humanly,  socially,  and  religiously,  is  alone  suffi 
cient  to  justify  it.  It  would  insult  it  to  plead  it  in 
extenuation.  Indeed,  dear  C.,  I  venture  to  say  that  if 

4* 


84  BLACK    DIAMONDS. 

nothing  else  was  accomplished  in  taking  the  African 
from  the  gloom  and  tangles  of  his  forests,  and  from  sav 
age  suffering  and  savage  despair,  than  bringing  him  to 
the  unutterable  riches  of  Christ,  this  alone  should  justify 
and  even  adorn  our  institution  of  slavery  in  the  eyes  of 
the  Christian  world. 

We  are  accustomed,  dear  C.,  to  hear  of  the  para 
mount  value  of  the  religion  of  our  Saviour — how  far  it 
exceeds  all  that  this  world  can  give  or  can  take  away. 
But  we  scarcely  appreciate,  in  the  practical  intercourse 
of  life,  the  comprehension  and  foroe  of  the  truism.  The 
best  of  us  do  not  properly  esteem  it,  in  our  comparative 
judgment  of  the  condition  and  happiness  of  God's 
creatures.  What,  indeed,  is  the  vainglory  of  the  world, 
the  names  of  free  and  great,  compared  to  the  riches  of 
Christ  and  the  ecstacy  of  a  hope  in  Heaven,  which  the 
poorest,  and,  to  our  earthly  eyes,  the  most  suffering  por 
tion  of  humanity,  may  enjoy  equally  with — nay,  in 
excess  over — the  elevated  and  sumptuous  ones  of  the 
world. 

You  have  read  the  story  of  Rienzi,  the  last  and  the 
most  august  of  the  Roman  tribunes.  He  made  a  vow 
by  the  dying  body  of  a  young,  sinless  brother.  In  the 
death  of  those  we  love,  there  is  a  beautiful  prompting 
of  Providence  to  order  our  lives  anew.  We  feel,  in  the 
depths  of  our  nature — and  it  is  therefore  true — that  the 
angel  spirits  of  those  who  were  beloved  on  earth  and 


BLACK  DIAMONDS.  85 

who  worship  in  Heaven,  still  watch  over  us  in  tender 
sorrow  at  our  worldliness,  or  in  exceeding  joy  at  our 
leaving  the  fleeting  things  of  earth  and  coming  home  to 
them  in  Christ.  But  Rienzi,  desolated  by  the  death  of 
his  childish  brother  and  the  snapping  of  the  last  loved 
tie  on  earth,  did  not  make  the  vow  that  nature 
prompted.  He  did  not  resolve  to  leave  his  proud  man 
hood,  to  give  up  the  vanities  of  his  great  learning,  and 
to  go  back  to  childhood,  searching  in  tears  for  the  inno 
cence  he  had  lost  there.  He  made  a  vow  of  bitterness 
— a  vow  to  drown  grief  in  enmity  to  man,  in  selfish 
studies,  and  in  the  pursuit  of  glory.  And  he  succeeded 
in  the  accomplishment  of  his  vow.  He  mounted  the 
throne  of  the  Caesars ;  and  all  that  treasure,  luxury,  or 
art,  could  yield  was  made  to  contribute  to  the  pageantry 
and  magnificence  of  his  power.  He  was  hailed  by  the 
extravagant  populace  as  the  deliverer  of  Rome  and  the 
arbiter  of  the  world.  Standing  before  the  Roman  people, 
he  unsheathed  his  sword,  brandished  it  to  the  three  parts 
of  the  world,  and  thrice  repeated  the  declaration,  "  And 
this,  too,  is  mine  !"  He  exhausted  in  this  speech  all  the 
extravagance  of  self-glorification.  But,  alas  !  he  could 
not  do  what  the  humblest  Christian  slave  that  waited  on 
his  pageant  might  do — point  to  heaven,  and  say,  in  the 
comprehension  of  all  joy  and  glory,  "  But  this,  this  is 
mine !" 

Go,  false  servitors  of  Christ,  ye  who,  on  the  ground 


86  BLACK  DIAMONDS. 

of  religion  itself,  and  in  the  garb  of  God's  ministers, 
assail  the  institution  of  negro  slavery,  that  has  brought 
the  knowledge  of  Christ  to  the  heathen,  and  who  recom 
mend  its  excision  by  the  sword  of  civil  war,  go  and 
speak  to  the  slave  in  our  own  country.  Tell  him  he  is 
assigned  to  an  inferior  lot,  to  life-long  labor,  in  which 
he  can  never  be  great  or  rich,  and  can  never  taste  of  the 
applause  of  this  world.  And  yet,  how  would  you  feel 
rebuked,  if,  pointing  to  heaven,  he  should  declare, 
"  But  this  is  mine." 

He  has  been  plucked  from  the  wilds  of  Africa,  and 
saved  to  Christ.  He  is  never  an  infidel,  for  he  does  not 
require,  to  establish  his  belief  in  the  reality  of  the  Sa 
viour,  expenditures  of  learning  and  processes  of  reason 
ing,  and  arguments  about  the  prophecies  and  the  mira 
cles.  He  is  not  reasoned  into  religion  (as  no  man  ever 
truly  was)  ;  but  he  teaches  us,  even  us,  an  unlettered 
lesson  of  religion  beyond  all  price — to  cast  down  the 
pride  of  reason,  and  to  listen  to  the  voice  of  the  intui 
tive  divine  spirit,  telling  us  without  argument,  without 
learning,  without  price,  of  the  eternal,  irresistible  truths 
of  the  religion  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ. 

Not  for  all  your  saintliness,  ye  red-nosed  shepherds  of 
G-od's  people,  \vho  preach  licentiousness  and  discord, 
and  the  contentions  and  parting  of  brethren,  would  I 
exchange  the  simple  faith  in  the  Saviour,  of  the  poor, 
ignorant  negro  slave,  whom  you  affect  to  pity.  He  has 


BLACK    DIAMONDS.  87 

none  of  your  learned  assurance  in  matters  of  salva 
tion  ;  his  ideas  of  religion  may  be  fantastic,  and  may 
excite  the  laughter  of  your  superior  wisdom,  that  scorns 
the  tender  and  beautiful  ignorance  that  throws  the 
charm  of  superstition  around  the  lessons  and  emblems 
of  religion ;  his  notions  of  his  state  and  calling  here  may 
never  have  been  edified  by  your  learned  jargon  about  the 
Christian  duty  of  socialism,  of  rebellion,  and  of  the  bap 
tism  of  blood  ;  but  the  great  preacher  Jesus  Christ  has 
spoken  to  him — not  in  lessons  of  discontent,  not  holding 
out  freedom,  or  riches,  or  licenses,  not  addressing  the 
lust  of  the  flesh,  or  the  lust  of  the  eye,  or  the  pride  of 
life,  but  in  precious  consolations,  in  assurances  sweeter 
than  learning  and  research,  ever  found  in  their  Bibles, 
and  in  lessons  of  perfect  peace — the  peace  of  the  strick 
en,  the  weary,  and  the  desolate,  in  the  life  everlasting. 
It  is  true  that  the  slaves'  religion  is  greatly  mixed  up 
with  superstitions,  that  it  is  ostentatious  and  loud,  and 
that  it  has  some  comical  aspects.  But  in  his  simple, 
earnest,  affectionate,  and  believing  heart,  in  his  ecstasies 
of  love  for  "  Mass'r  Jesus,"  and  in  his  tenderness  to 
whatever  appeals  to  him  in  nature,  are  principles  of  re 
ligion  as  saving,  I  venture  to  say,  as  the  precise  creeds, 
and  the  solemn  and  exact  manners  of  the  churchmen. 
Many  a  death-scene  have  I  witnessed  among  the  slaves 
on  the  old  plantations,  and  many  a  time  have  I  seen 
those  whose  untutored  and  awkward  religious  profes- 


OO  BLACK    DIAMONDS. 

sions  amused  me  when  a  thoughtless  youth,  yet  dying 
with  the  sustainment  of  that  religion,  joyfully,  and  with 
exclamations  of  triumph  over  the  grave.  No  Christian 
philosopher,  no  preacher  of  politics  or  creeds,  could  add 
to  that  triumph  and  joy  eternal,  or  could  diminish 
the  ecstasy  of  that  inner  assurance  of  Heaven  by  weigh 
ing  the  hopes  of  the  poor  slave's  salvation  in  doubting 
scales. 

Precious  is  the  memory  of  the  dead !  And  precious 
to  me,  my  beloved  friend,  is  the  memory  of  the  black 
loved  ones  who  left  me  in  the  thoughtless,  unremember- 
ing,  laughing  hours  of  boyhood,  for  that  peaceful  shore, 
where,  now  recollecting  and  sighing,  I  would  give  all  of 
earth  to  meet  them.  Pressing  upon  me,  and  drawing  the 
sweet  tear  from  a  nature  that  has  long  lain  in  the  decay 
ing  embraces  of  the  world,  come  the  memories  of  youth. 

I  have  often  spoken  to  you  of  the  old  black  patriarch, 
Uncle  Nash,  who  led  me  by  the  hand  to  the  preaching 
at  the  negro  quarter  every  Sunday  fortnight.  This  good 
old  Christian  man  fell  in  harness,  and  died  with  on 
master  but  Jesus  to  relieve  the  last  mysterious  agonies 
of  his  death.  He  died  out  in  the  woods,  where  the 
angel  had  suddenly  come  to  him.  How  vividly  do  I  re 
call  the  excitement  of  the  search  for  Uncle  Nash,  and  the 
shock  to  my  heart,  of  the  discovery,  in  the  bright  morn 
ing,  of  the  corpse  lying  among  the  thick  undergrowth, 
and  in  the  whortleberry  bushes  of  the  wood.  But  why 


BLACK    DIAMONDS.  89 

lament  the  old  slave,  and  wail  at  the  terrible  sight ! 
The  body  in  its  coarse  garments,  dank  with  dew,  lay 
there  in  the  bushes,  in  the  loathsomeness  of  death,  but 
the  immortal  soul  had  been  clothed  for  the  service  above, 
in  its  raiment  of  glory,  and  was  singing  the  everlasting 
song  in  heaven. 

He  was  buried  in  the  grove,  which  my  eye,  from  the 
point  where  I  am  writing,  can  catch  on  the  warm  hill, 
covered  now  with  the  blue  blossoms  of  the  thistle.  Un 
usual  marks  of  affection  and  respect  were  shown  in  his 
burial.  The  funeral  services  were  read  before  all  the 
negroes  at  the  grave,  and  the  younger  members  of  our 
family  attended  as  mourners  ;  and,  according  to  the 
negro  custom,  each  one  of  us  threw  a  handful  of  dirt  on 
the  coffin  lid,  as  the  last  farewell.  Many  years  have 
gone  by  since  then,  but  I  can  never  forget  that  scene  of 
the  deep,  red  grave,  in  which  the  old  Christian  slave 
was  laid ;  and  when  the  day  expires,  I  revisit  the  spot 
and  read  on  the  white  head-board  that  marks  it,  the 
words — "  The  testimony  of  the  Lord  is  sure,  making" 
wise  the  simple" 

Yours  truly,  E.  A.  p. 

To  D.  M.  C    Esq.,  New- York. 


90  BLACK    DIAMONDS. 


LETTER     VIII. 

ADDED ARRY,  MARYLAND,  1858. 

My  DEAR  C. :  I  can  recollect  that  once  I  entertained 
a  belief,  and  found  a  dangerous  comfort  in  the  common 
doctrine  that  the  physical  pains  of  death  were  not  terri 
ble,  and  might  generally  be  endured  with  ease.  My 
present  belief  differs  greatly  from  this  deceitful  impres 
sion.  I  now  believe  the  pains  of  this  dread  change  to 
be  unutterable,  and  to  surpass  all  else  of  the  pains  and 
sorrows  of  the  flesh  in  exceeding  sharpness.  Reason, 
revelation,  and  the  analogies  of  nature,  all  seem  to  me 
to  point  to  this  opinion. 

Is  it  to  be  supposed,  my  dear  C.,  that  any  change  in 
nature  so  great  and  so  vast  as  that  of  death — that  the 
parting  of  so  many  subtil  e  and  close  ties  as  those  which 
unite  body  and  soul — is  accomplished  without  great  tra 
vail  and  agony  ! 

It  may  be  that  the  failing  body  has  not  the  power  of 
demonstrating  the  last  dread  agony  of  the  separation. 
That  agony  may  be  reserved  until  the  body  can  no  longer 
reveal  its  pain  by  demonstration  or  gesture,  and  thus  be 
mercifully  veiled,  as  it  were,  from  the  terror-stricken 
senses  of  poor,  fearful  humanity. 

Have  you,  my  dear  C.,  ever  witnessed,  closely  and 
steadily,  a  scene  of  natural  death  ?  In  the  quietest  scene 
of  this  kind,  there  are  yet,  I  think,  terrors  to  those  who 


BLACK     DIAMONDS.  91 

exercise  reflection  and  a  just  imagination  upcxi  its  signs. 
How  terrible  is  the  cold,  cold  sweat,  the  heavy,  dragging 
breath,  the  eye  evidently — and  it  may  be  really — looking 
upon  the  veiled  figures  that  stand  by  the  parting  soul, 
the  gray  mist  that  gathers  upon  its  lids,  and  the  restless 
arms  reaching  out  and  swinging  in  the  dizziness  of  death. 
Oh,  how  fearful  to  have  to  pass  through  the  unknown 
feelings  of  which  these  are  signs,  and  to  descend  into 
the  darkness  of  the   last  agonies  of  dissolution  !     How 
fearful,  how  awful  to  go  down  into  the  dark  valley,  and 
to  meet  there,  in  silence  to  all  the  world,  the  last,  mys 
terious,  veiled  agony  of  death  !     Nothing  can  avert  this 
meeting.     We,  dear  friend,  are  to  enter  the  valley,  and 
alone  there,  with  the  world  and  friends  and  all  shut  out, 
to  go  down  to  death — to  go  down  to  meet,  in  secrecy 
with  our  God,  the  viewless,  shrouded  agony  of  the  last- 
Oh,   may   that   God   sustain   us    in   those    moments  • 
Surely  naught  else  can.     Then  the  comforter  prays  his 
last,  and  we  have  spoken,  with  the  last  effort,  the  last 
hard  whisper  the  curious  man  extorts — then  we  leave 
behind  all  consolations  of  earth — then  the  world  swims 
around  us,  and  is  gone — then  our  consoling  friends  fade 
from  our  sight  and  disappear — then  voice  and  gesture  to 
appeal  for  sympathy  are   gone  too^then  we   are  gone, 
gone  away  into  the  darkness  and  dumbness  of  advancing 
death — and  then  who  is  there  to  be  with  us  to  sustain 
the  spirit  in  the  last  and  real  contest  of  dissolution  that 


92  BLACK    DIAMONDS. 

remains !  "Who  but  the  precious  Saviour,  who  in  Heaven 
remembers  the  sufferings  of  Gethsemane  and  Calvary, 
and  who  has  expressly  promised  to  be  with  his  beloved 
when  called  upon  to  tread  the  same  path  of  nature's  tra 
vail.  Oh,  how  precious  is  this  consolation  !  Here,  here 
is  the  sweet  lesson  of  death. 

The  impression,  my  dear  C.,  made  upon  me  by  the 
first  scene  of  death  I  ever  witnessed,  can  never  be  erased 
or  wholly  overcome.  It  is  the  recollection  of  it  that 
sometimes  comes  into  the  career  of  my  life,  and  stuns 
the  heart  of  joy,  and  has  induced  the  thoughts  I  have 
just,  in  deepest  sincerity,  expressed  of  the  terrors  of 
the  dissolution  of  the  earthly  tabernacle  of  the  body. 

It  was  the  death  of  her  who  had  held  a  place  in  my 
boyish  heart,  second  only  to  the  beautiful  and  lasting 
love  we  draw  from  community  of  blood — the  death  of  a 
poor,  old,  black-skinned  woman.  The  angel  of  terrors 
struck  her  in  age,  disease,  and  feebleness ;  and  yet  the 
scene  of  the  parting  of  the  spirit  was  one  of  the  most 
mysterious  and  appalling  struggles  that  ever  yet  appealed 
to  my  eyes. 

Well  do  I  recollect  the  night  of  gloom  and  storm, 
when  the  all-visiting  messenger  of  death  came  in  the 
darkness  to  the  little  log  hut,  and  stood  by  the  old  straw 
couch,  to  demand  the  fleeting  spirit  of  the  old,  worn  slave. 
The  family  were  awakened  by  a  summons  from  the  doc 
tor,  told  in  the  usual,  kind,  suppressed  manner  that  Aunt 


BLACK    DIAMONDS.  93 

Marie  was  dying.  It  was  with  a  stunned  feeling  that  I 
dressed  and  htirried  out  to  the  cabin.  How  I  recall  the 
solemn,  relentless  sound  of  the  thunder  which  was 
rolling  in  the  sky  as  I  passed  on  to  the  scene  of  death ! 
It  sounded  to  me  as  the  terrible  voice  of  nature,  saying, 
"  There  is  no  hope,  for  I  am  merciless ;  I  am  insensible, 
and  must  obey  the  forces  that  are  in  me,  for  I  am 
nature."  Never  have  I  heard  that  voice  but  once  again, 
and  then  it  was  amid  the  billows  of  a  raging  surf  that 
swept  over  a  wreck  to  which  I  was  clinging,  and  then  the 
sea  seemed  to  say,  "  I  am  inexorable,  I  am  obeying  exact 
mathematical  forces,  and  what  care  I  for  you."  Alas !  I 
felt  not  then  that  there  was  a  God,  to  whose  dominion 
and  mercy  man  may  look  for  his  rescue  from  the  boiling 
waves,  from  every  scene  of  agony  and  danger,  from 
every  merciless  law  of  nature,  and  even  from  the  dark 
despair  of  a  shipwrecked  soul. 

I  approached  and  looked  upon  the  rude  bed  with  a 
beating  heart,  and  yet  with  a  strange  curiosity.  There, 
with  eyes  half  closed,  and  with  low,  sobbing  breath,  lay 
the  lean,  worn  body  of  the  dying  old  slave.  She  was 
out  of  her  senses ;  the  soul  was  wandering  forth  in  a 
dark  and  terrible  delirium.  Horror-struck,  I  gazed  upon 
the  scene  of  death,  and  yet  curious,  eager  to  note  every 
sign  of  the  awful  change,  stretching  forward  to  see  each 
token  of  agony  and  each  print  of  death.  For  twelve 
hours  I  witnessed  that  scene,  during  which  time  the 


94  BLACK     DIAMONDS. 

dying  old  slave  was  in  the  pains  of  dissolution,  and  never 
can  I  forget  that  long  spell  of  utter  heart-broken  agony, 
mingled  strangely  with  the  most  mysterious  caprices  of 
thought  and  fancy.  Who,  dear  friend,  can  explain  this 
curious  psychology  of  the  soul — these  thoughts  of  utter 
levity  and  recollections  of  rude  mirth,  that  intrude  even 
while  the  broken  spirit  bewails  its  loved  and  lost  by  the 
couch  of  death,  or  in  the  last  heart-rending  but  beautiful 
office  of  the  burial. 

Watching  until  the  sun  came  out  from  the  night  and 
the  storm  upon  the  bright  meridian  of  an  autumn  day, 
I  saw  Aunt  Marie  die.  She  died  in  a  long  delirium  of 
pain,  but  not  an  unbroken  one,  as  I  believe.  I  watched 
it  all — the  writhing  of  those  lips,  the  gaze  of  dumb  ter 
ror  in  those  eyes  as  they  looked  upon  the  hidden  spectres 
and  the  weary  reaching  out  of  the  arms  above  the  head, 
that  lay  in  the  gathering  cold  damps  of  death.  The 
doctor  said  her  sane  consciousness  was  utterly  gone  ;  he 
consoled  us  with  this,  as  we  broke  out  into  grief  on  see 
ing  the  agony  of  the  sufferer — he  said  she  probably  felt 
no  pain.  But  who  can  tell  of  this  ?  As  the  poor  sufferer 
lay  gasping  and  darkly  struggling,  but  a  few  moments 
before  the  last,  the  minister  came  to  the  bedside  and  said, 
"  Let  us  pray."  Ah,  what  is  she  trying  to  do?  With 
what  strange  fancy  are  her  hands  reaching  out  and  grop 
ing  as  if  to  find  something  ?  The  doctor  at  last  divines 
the  meaning  of  the  gesture.  He  joins  her  hands  to- 


BLACK  DIAMONDS.  95 

gether — this  is  what  she  wanted,  to  join  her  weak, 
trembling  hands  in  prayer  to  God.  An  expression  of 
peace  lights  up  the  face  for  a  moment.  Thank  God,  we 
say,  that  she  is  not  dying  in  dark  unconsciousness — thank 
God,  that  no  mortal  ever  dies,  as  we  may  truly  believe, 
in  unbroken  unconsciousness.  The  prayer  is  ended  ; 
all  of  earthly  consolation  is  over,  and  the  soul  is  com 
mitted  to  its  God.  A  moment,  and  the  lips  are  moving 
in  a  whisper.  What  is  it?  "Thanky,  Mass'r  Jesus,"  is 
caught  from  the  expiring  breath.  And  now  she  is  with 
her  great  Master,  and  has  gone.  The  doctor  shuts  down 
the  eyelids ;  she  is  now  in  the  dark  last  agony  of  which 
she  cannot  testify ;  death  gives  the  silent,  veiled  stroke, 
and  the  body  stretches  out,  sharp,  rigid,  dead. 

This  death  scene,  comforted  by  the  man  of  God,  and 
watched  by  white  faces  wet  with  tears,  was  that  of  a 
slave.  But  seldom  is  it,  that  the  slave  is  left  to  meet 
his  death  as  the  white  pauper  in  his  rags  and 
desolation.  His  master  and  mistress  and  the  white 
family  are  always  by  to  visit  him  in  this  great  need 
of  humanity.  Indeed,  when  an  old,  loved  slave  ( as 
Aunt  Marie  was),  who  has  grown  up  with  the  family, 
the  handmaiden  of  the  old  when  they  were  young,  and 
the  mammy  of  the  young  before  they  have  grown  old 
in  worldly  care,  is  taken  away  by  the  equal  hand  of 
death,  it  evokes  a  sympathy  and  grief  that  many  a 
white,  saintly  soul  of  your  Northern  Pharisees  might 
envy,  when  he  leaves  the  world  unhonored  and  unwept. 


96  BLACK    DIAMONDS. 

There  are  angels  in  human  form,  and  doubt  it  not,  dear 
C.,  even  among  the  slave-owners  of  the  South.  One  I 
have  seen,  who  to  my  youth  was  given,  and  who  won 
my  heart  to  love  and  worship  her  forever  by  her  beautiful, 
angel  ministrations  at  the  couch  where  first  I  witnessed 
the  appalling  struggle  of  death.  It  was  thee,  my  gentle 
Adelaide !  It  was  thy  calm  and  holy  beauty,  as,  when 
all  around  were  lost  and  idle  in  their  grief,  you  sat 
chafing  the  cold  hands  of  the  poor,  dying  slave,  with 
thy  eyes  ever  raised  in  sweetest  tears  to  heaven,  and  re 
peating  the  beautiful  prayers  of  your  faith  for  mercy  for 
the  departing  soul. 

Oh,  mystery  of  the  beauty  of  woman,  how  does  the 
world  misunderstand  you !  That  world  you  court  with 
bright  eyes,  and  gay  blandishments,  and  skilful  dress, 
and  painted  cheeks.  But  more  beautiful  than  a  queen  in 
all  her  lustre  was  the  pale,  gentle,  brown-haired  girl  that 
attended  the  couch  of  the  dying  slave  she  had  loved. 
There  she  sat,  with  no  outburst  of  grief,  pale,  quiet, 
self-possessed,  keenly  alive  to  every  imagined  want  of 
the  dying  sufferer,  and  anon  turning  her  beautiful  eyes, 
drowned  in  tears,  to  heaven,  and  repeating  during  the 
long,  long  hours  the  sweet  hymns  of  the  church.  I  had 
often  admired  some  of  these  hymns ;  but  an  eloquence 
was  therein  I  never  before  imagined  when  thou,  my  gentle 
Addie,  with  streaming  eyes,  and  in  trembling,  sweet  tones 
which  told  of  the  sinner's  love  of  Jesus,  pronounced  the 
lines : 


BLACK    DIAMONDS.  97 

14  Rock  of  Ages,  cleft  for  me, 
Let  me  hide  myself  in  thee  ; 
Let  the  water  and  the  blood, 
From  thy  side  a  healing  flood, 
Be  of  sin  the  double  cure, 
Save  from  wrath,  and  make  me  pure. 

"  Should  my  tears  forever  flow, 
Should  my  zeal  no  languor  know, 
This  for  sin  could  not  atone, 
Thou  must  save,  and  thou  alone  ; 
In  my  hand  no  price  I  bring, 
Simply  to  thy  cross  I  cling. 

"  While  I  draw  this  fleeting  breath, 
When  mine  eyelids  close  in  death, 
When  I  rise  to  worlds  unknown, 
And  behold  thee  on  thy  throne, 
Rock  of  Ages,  cleft  for  me, 
Let  me  hide  myself  in  thee." 

And  so  Aunt  Marie  died — and  numbered  is  she,  the 
old  negro,  among  those  whom,  with  love-lit  eyes,  I  can 
so  often  see  beckoning  to  me  from  Heaven.  How 
often,  and  oh,  my  friend,  how  plainly  have  I  seen  them 
standing  on  the  edges  of  the  white  clouds  of  the  day — 
and  how  often  and  how  lovingly  have  I  seen  them  float 
ing  on  and  among  the  still  more  beautiful  clouds  that 
are  gathered  from  the  day  at  the  gates  of  evening ! 
Yes,  they  are  all  there — the  beloved  parents,  who  folded 
their  hands  meekly  in  their  age  and  died — the  bright 
and  noble  brother  that  fell  on  the  stained  battle-field — 
the  little  sister  that  laid  down  her  life  among  the  flowers 
as  a  used  toy — and  with  them  and  among  them  the 


98  BLACK  DIAMONDS. 

dear,  old,  familiar  blacks  of  my  boy's  home,  their  faces 
now  shining  with  a  radiance  that  has  no  distinguishing 
color  of  black  or  white — the  radiance  that  is  beyond  the 
sun  and  moon  and  stars — the  radiance  of  love  to  God 
and  happiness  in  him.  And  there  they  are  in  sweet  rest, 
and  all  in  robes  of  white.  Ever  blessed  are  they  in  a 
love  that  knows  no  heartache,  or  parting,  or  reverse,  or 
distractions,  or  degrees,  but  is  even  like  unto  the  love 
of  "Him  who  sitteth  upon  the  Throne." 

*         *     "Who  to  these  can  turn, 
And  weigh  them,  'gainst  a  weeping  world  like  this, 
Nor  feel  his  spirit  burn 
To  grasp  their  so  sweet  bliss  ?  " 

Yours  truly, 

E.  A.  P. 

To  D.  M.  C.,  Esq.,  N.  Y. 


LETTER   IX. 

GREEN  MOUNTAIN,  VIRGINIA,  1858. 

MY  DEAR  C. :  It  is  clear  that  vain  and  unprejudiced 
minds  are,  merely  provoked  by  argument.  How  useless 
then,  how  worse  than  idle,  to  argue  with  abolitionists ! 
In  writing  to  you,  dear  friend,  of  negro  life,  I  have  pur 
posely  avoided  contentious  arguments  about  slavery.  I 
have  drawn  some  few  hurried  pictures  of  negro  life  and 
character,  satisfied  that  the  truth  told  of  the  Southern 


BLACK  DIAMONDS.  99 

slave,  in  simple  descriptions  and  anecdotes,  will  do  more 
to  cultivate  wholesome  sentiments  on  the  subject  of 
negro  slavery,  than  wrangling  sermons  and  essays.  It 
is  right,  however,  to  state,  that  these  pictures  have  been 
intended  rather  as  amusements  than  as  lessons. 

In  the  course  of  the  desultory  sketches  I  have  thus 
taken  for  your  amusement,  of  the  dark  acquaintances  I 
have  made  or  renewed  in  my  Southern  sojourns,  I  have 
reserved  for  you  some  account  of  that  most  distinguished 
paltfvarer,  romancer,  diplomat,  and  ultimately  a  cobbler 
of  old  shoes — Junk.  You  will  doubtless  bring  the  hero 
to  rnind  from  the  recollections  preserved  of  him  by  one 
of  your  household,  in  whose  early  Virginia  life  Junk 
was  a  prominent  figure.  He  was  a  short,  puffy,  copper- 
colored  nigger,  very  greasy,  always  perspiring,  and  a  little 
lame.  "Missis  Perline"  can  tell  you  of  many  sore  expe 
riences  of  Junk's  shoe-leather ;  and  particularly  how, 
when  by  especial  privilege,  she  was  mounted  on  "hip-shot 
Jack"  to  go  to  church,  Junk  would  waylay  her  in  the 
woods  at  a  distance  from  the  house,  and  claim  a  lift  behind 
her,  where,  by  dint  of  his  best  boots  and  crutch,  seconded 
by  his  young  mistress'  endeavors  with  the  switch,  the 
afflicted  horse  would  be  forced  into  all  sorts  of  shuffling 
excuses  for  a  gallop. 

Junk  had  not  always  been  a  cobbler.  To  believe  his 
own  narrative,  he  had  been  a  circus-rider,  an  alligator 
hunter,  an  attache  of  a  foreign  legation,  and  a  murderer, 

5 


100  BLACK  DIAMONDS. 

stained  with  the  blood  of  innumerable  Frenchmen,  with 
whom  he  had  quarreled  when  on  his  European  tour. 

The  fact  was  that  Junk's  master  was  actually  once 
sent  on  a  European  mission,  and  proposed  at  first  to  take 
our  sable  hero  in  his  company.  Before  leaving  the  limits 
of  Virginia,  however,  he  became  alarmed  at  the  risk  of 
taking  Junk  among  the  abolitionists,  and  finally  disposed 
of  him  by  hiring  him  out  as  a  shoemaker  or  cobbler,  in  a 
town  at  some  distance  from  our  dark  hero's  former  resi 
dence.  Junk  never  forgave  his  master  for  this  unlokoed- 
for  slight.  It  cut  him  hard  and  deep,  for  he  was  a  nig 
ger  of  "  unbounded  stomach."  As  an  instance  of  the 
nice  and  becoming  pride  of  our  hero,  it  is  well  known 
that  when  Junk  was  in  his  working  habiliments,  he 
always  professed  to  belong  to  the  man  who  kept  the 
shoe  shop,  and  that  it  was  only  when  he  disported  him 
self  in  his  holiJay  attire,  that  he  claimed  to  belong  to 
the  minister  plenipotentiary. 

But  it  was  when  Junk  returned  to  the  old  plantation 
that  his  great  importance  began.  He  commenced  by 
imposing  on  all  the  negroes  round  about,  old  and  young, 
the  story  that  he  had  actually  been  to  France  with  his 
master,  who  still  remained  there,  and  that  during  the 
time  he  had  been  missed  from  the  Green  Mountain  he 
had  been  lionizing  in  the  famous  city  of  Paris.  The 
story  took  with  the  innocent  darkies  and  gained  Junk 
great  fame.  He  became  the  oracle  of  the  kitchen,  and 


BLACK  DIAMONDS.  101 

the  negroes  would  crowd  around  hint  on  every  possible 
occasion,  as  he  dispensed  the  eventful'  exp'eri'eficVs'  'of 
his  pilgrimage.  Some  few  of  the  men  were  skeptical, 
many  were  envious  ;  but  Junk  held  his  own,  and  was 
still  the  especial  object  of  the  admiration  of  the  house 
maids,  who  gave  their  sympathy  and  cheers  in  every  com 
bat  he  had  with  rival  beaux  as  tributes  to  the  truth  of  his 
information.  "Twarnt  no  use,"  Miss  Irene  would  re 
mark,  "  to  talk  to  niggers  that  never  knowed  nothin'  bout 
de  furrin  country  and  de  Parish,  where  ole  mass'r  was  min 
ister  and  out-preached  dem  all.  Didn't  Mr.  Junk  speak 
the  langwig  ? — and  dar  is  dat  nigger,  Colin,  wid  his 
swelled  head,  must  always  put  in  his  mouth,  and  make 
Mr.  Junk  out  a  born  liar." 

Still  Colin  would  continue  skeptical.  '  Junk,  however? 
was  more  than  his  match,  and  had  a  ready  answer  for 
every  question  of  the  doubting. 

The  ideas  concerning  the  French  which  Junk  promul 
gated  among  the  negroes  were  somewhat  extraordinary. 
He  represented  them  as  a  good-for-nothing  set,  much  be 
low  the  standard  of  nigger  civilization,  a  sort  of  puny 
barbarians,  who  regarded  an  American  darkey  as  a  being 
of  great  majesty.  Junk  had  slain  Frenchmen,  had 
treated  the  little,  barbarous  nigger- worshippers  with 
disdain,  and  had  received  from  them  tokens  of  great 
distinction.  To  these  points  Colin's  cross-examinations 
were  mainly  directed.  He  doubted  Junk's  prowess ;  he 


102  BLACK  DIAMONDS. 

i    t\  p          c  >>...-      5      ,*    »         0 

w     *•  •»     fc       »     S   _f«-     t         * 

V    ft  v  ?  :>'  t  **  «* 

laughed  incredulously  at  his  deeds  of  blood;  and  he 
€\teh'  went  so  far  as  to  dispute  the  assertion  of  Junk's 
intimacy  "wid  barbarians  dat  were  white  folks,"  and  to 
contend  that  his  friend,  the  count,  was  some  old  "  no 
count"  nigger  he  had  come  across  among  the  be 
nighted  regions  outside  of  Ole  Yirginny. 

We  boys  used  often  to  join  the  crowd  of  Junk's  listen, 
ers,  and  would  have  our  own  amusement  in  quizzing 
tho  old  cobbler.  "  I  suppose,  Uncle  Junk,"  Dick  would 
say,  "  when  you  were  in  Paris  you  saw  the  Palais 
Royal." 

"  Saw  de  Paris  Lawyers,  young  mass'r  !  Why,  in 
course  I  did.  You  see  when  I  got  dere,  I  went  to  de 
courthouse  to  hear  'em  plead.  And  when  I  come  in,  de 
Paris  lawyers  were  pleading  in  French ;  but  when  dey 
seed  me,  dey  den  commence  pleadin  in  Amerikin." 

This  compliment  of  the  Paris  Bar  to  Junk  would  be 
doubted  by  the  skeptical  Colin,  who  would  again  come 
up  to  the  attack. 

"  I  say,  big  hoss,  I  hope  you  didn't  disgrace  Ole  Yir 
ginny  by  wearing  dose  boots  in  •  de  city  " — referring 
contemptuously  to  Junk's  immense  cowhide  boots,  which 
showed  the  deformity  of  one  of  his  feet. 

But  Junk  was  always  ready  for  the  attack  ;  and  im 
mediately  remarked  with  a  serious  and  gloomy  look, 
that  he  had  once  killed  a  certain  small  Frenchman  who 
had  insulted  his  boots. 


BLACK    DIAMONDS.  103 

"How  was  it,  Junk?" 

"  Well,  you  see  I  was  walkin  in  de  garden  wid  my 
breeches  tucked  down  in  my  boots,  when  two  of  dese 
mean  Frenchmen  come  along,  and  de  one  to  toder  cast 
an  insult  on  my  boots,  cos  you  see  he  didn't  know  dat  1 
knowd  de  langwig  and  could  hear  him.  Well,  I  wouldn't 
stan  no  insult  from  no  Frenchman,  no  how  ;  so  I  jes 
struck  him  wid  my  nerves.  And  one  lick  was  jes  enuf — 
it  killed  de  man  ;  and  dey  sent  for  de  secretary  to  sot 
on  him." 

"But  what  did  he  say  about  de  boots,  big"  hoss  ?" 
would  inquire  the  persistent  Colin. 

"  Well,  you  see  de  man  talked  French,  and  tain't 
while  to  tell  dat  to  poor  ignorant  black  trash  like  you." 

But  Colin  was  pressing.  He  wanted  to  hear  Junk's 
French.  The  housemaids  too,  desired  a  specimen  of  the 
same,  if  Mr.  Junk  would  kindly  consent  to  put  his 
rival  down.  "Dat  nigger  Colin  had  too  much  sass  any 
how — Mr.  Junk,  won't  you  please  say  what  de  French 
man  say  ?  " 

"Well,"  replied  Junk,  with  a  sudden  jerk  of  conde 
scension,  "de  man  didn't  say  much.  He  say  '-Poly  glot 
sots'  and  de  Amerikin  for  dat,  you  know,  is  4de  boots 
brought  de  fool.'  ' 

And  while  all  joined  in  laughing  at  Colin's  discom 
fiture,  Junk  would  make  his  retreat  good,  walking  off 
with  a  careless  and  provoking  whistle. 


104  BLACK  DIAMONDS. 

Poor  Junk  !  His  travels  were  never  more  extended 
beyond  the  slopes  of  the  Grreen  Mountain.  He  was 
settled  down  as  cobbler  for  the  plantation  ;  unable  to 
revisit,  except  in  fancy,  the  beautiful  world  he  had 
traversed  as  diplomat,  man-slayer  and  circus-rider — for 
Junk,  according  to  his  own  account,  had  also  been,  in 
his  various  transmigrations,  the  star  of  a  circus,  and 
was  accustomed  to  perform  the  feat  of  bearing  five  men 
around  the  ring  "on  his  nerves." 

The  last  I  saw  of  the  old  cobbler  in  his  decay,  was 
when  he  was  arraigned  before  a  country  magistrate,  for 
having  wounded  with  a  scythe  blade  a  negro  on  a  neigh 
boring  plantation. 

The  sum  of  the  evidence  was  that  Junk  had  been 
surprised  in  his  attentions  to  Nutty's  wife,  and  in  the 
scuffle  that  ensued  had  nearly  chopped  the  jealous  hus 
band's  arm  off.  A  counter  charge  of  assault  and  battery 
was  also  preferred  against  Nutty. 

The  miserable  Nutty  stood  with  his  wound  upon  his 
arm  exposed  to  view,  raw  and  agape,  as  if  to  plead  for 
him.  He  had  no  eloquent  advocate  to  plead  for  the 
sanctities  of  his  home.  He  had  no  wanton  judge  to 
listen  to  excuses  of  insanity.  He  had  no  committees  of 
matrons  to  uphold  him  ;  no  crawling  serpent  in  the  stolen 
livery  of  Heaven  to  tell  him  he  had  done  right.  He 
was  a  slave,  and  must  submit  to  the  law. 

On  the  other  hand,   Junk   was  greatly  at  his  ease, 


BLACK    DIAMONDS.  105 

losing  neither  his  accustomed  plausibility  nor  pompous- 
ness.  Of  course,  being  in  the  presence  of  his  master, 
he  was  very  insolent  to  the  magistrate  ;  and  he  gave  in 
his  evidence  with-  his  accustomed  falseness,  and  with  an 
air  that  was  by  no  means  conciliatory  of  mercy,  to  the 
following  effect : 

"  Name,  Junk  Jefferson.  Dunno  how  ole  I  is — was 
boy  'long  wid  mass'r  Tudor.  Never  was  hooped  before 
for  nothin'  ;  never  run  arter  other  folk's  wives — humph! 
— leave  dat  to  de  white  folks"  (magistrate  looks  indig 
nant).  "  Nutty  sassed  me  all  for  nothin'.  Call  me  cuss 
words,  and  beat  me.  So  when  he  come  comvortin  round 
me,  I  tell  de  nigger  go  way,  I  didn't  want  to  hurt  him, 
cos  you  see" — (with  magnanimity) — "  de  chile  was  much 
younger  dan  I  was.  And  den  when  he  come  gin  me, 
and  I  had  a  piece  of  cradle  blade  in  my  hand  dat  I  had 
jes  found,  he  hit  up  he  arm  'gainst  it,  and  den  he  holler 
for  de  white  folks — and  den  de  dog  come,  and  den  'twas 
*  Lord  foot  help  body  ;'  and  den  you  may  know  how  dat 
was,  Boss." 

There  was  no  other  alternative  for  the  magistrate  but 
to  sentence  Junk  to  the  lash.  But  it  would  not  do, 
thought  the  wise  man,  to  grant  any  great  deal  more  to 
one  litigant  than  another.  So  poor  Nutty  was  also  con 
demned  to  punishment.  The  sentence  was,  that  Junk 
should  have  thirty-nine  lashes,  and  Nutty,  fifty  ;  those 
for  Junk  to  be  laid  on  by  Nutty's  overseer,  and  those  for 
Nutty  by  Junk's  overseer. 


106 


BLACK    DIAMONDS. 


And  so  the  matter  was  finally  arranged  to  satisfy  the 
punctilios  of  the  masters,  who  attended  the  trial  at  the 
cross-road,  somewhat  in  the  character  of  opposite  law 
yers.  The  whippings  were  administered  on  the  spot. 
The  unhappy  and  discomfited  Nutty  took  his  with  the 
touching  sing-song  of  the  negro  under  the  lash ;  while 
Junk  firmly  restrained  his  voice,  hustled  on  his  shirt,  and 
left  the  bowers  of  justice  with  a  hateful  gleam  of 
triumph  in  his  eyes. 

......  "  Equal  and  exact  justice  to  all  men !"    Alas, 

the  phrase  is  irony,  not  only  on  the  slave  plantations, 
but  on  how  many  other  scenes  constantly  passing  before 
us  in  the  history  of  society  and  in  the  dioramas  of  the 
world. 

Yours  truly,  E.  A.  p. 

To  D.  M.  C.,  Esq.,  New- York. 


LETTER    X . 

WASHINGTON  CITY,  D.  C.,  1858. 

MY  DEAR   C :   The  remarks  you  have  on  more 

than  one  occasion  addressed  to  me,  to  the  effect  that  in 
both  the  natural  and  political  course  of  events  in  this 
country,  slavery  was  destined  to  disappear,  have  induced 
me  to  pay  to  this  question  considerable  and  especial  re 
flection.  And  to  my  mind  the  question  has  assumed 


BLACK    DIAMONDS.  107 

vast  proportions.  It  has  risen  above  the  partisan  ques 
tions  of  the  day — risen  above  all  local  and  passing  excite 
ments,  presenting  itself  to  me  as  a  great  problem, 
involving  the  largest  interests  of  the  world. 

In  this  catholic  view,  I  may  treat  the  question  of  the 
extension  of  the  negro  slavery  of  the  South.  Not  as  a 
question  between  parties,  or  between  sections,  or  between 
conflicting  prejudices  shall  I  regard  it,  but  as  an  ele 
ment  to  be  solved  hi  the  mighty  problem  of  who  shall 
lead  the  world's  progress,  and  who  shall  be  the  founders 
of  its  greatest  empire  of  industry. 

It  is  this  question  :  shall  the  institution  which  has 
built  up  the  commerce  and  industry  of  such  large  por 
tions  of  the  civilized  world,  that  has  so  identified  itself 
with  the  progress  of  the  age,  that  is  so  beneficent  to 
national  strength  and  character,  that  secures  the  bul 
warks  of  social  conservatism,  that  inspires  with  inde 
pendence,  refines  the  soul,  and  nourishes  a  graceful  pride; 
shall  an  institution  at  once  so  powerful  and  so  polishing, 
be  condemned  to  extinction,  or  shall  it  continue  to 
flourish  and  gather  strength  and  beneficence  in  the 
coming  time  ? 

True,  I  see  with  you,  my  friend,  that  slavery  is  losing 
political  ground  in  this  country,  and  that  barriers  are 
already  erected  to  its  extension  in  the  West,  (which  is 
the  present  direction  of  our  new  settlements)  that  per 
haps  will  never  be  surmounted.  But  I  see  other  pros 
pects. 

*  5* 


108  BLACK    DIAMONDS. 

Looking  into  the  possibilities  of  the  future,  regarding 
the  magnifient  country  of  tropical  America,  which  lies 
in  the  path  of  our  destiny  on  this  continent,  we  may 
see  an  empire  as  powerful  and  gorgeous  as  ever  was  pic 
tured  in  our  dreams  of  history.  What  is  that  empire  ? 
It  is  an  empire  founded  on  military  ideas  ;  representing 
the  noble  peculiarities  of  Southern  civilization  ;  includ 
ing  within  its  limits  the  isthmuses  of  America  and.  the 
regenerated  West  Indies  ;  having  control  of  the  two 
dominant  staples  of  the  world's  commerce — cotton  and 
sugar  ;  possessing  the  highways  of  the  world's  com 
merce  ;  surpassing  all  empires  of  the  age  in  the  strength 
of  its  geographical  position  ;  and,  in  short,  combining 
elements  of  strength,  prosperity,  and  glory,  such  as 
never  before  in  the  modern  ages  have  been  placed  within 
the  reach  of  a  single  government. 

What  a  splendid  vision  of  empire  !  How  sublime  in 
its  associations !  How  noble  and  inspiriting  the  idea, 
that  upon  the  strange  theatre  of  tropical  America,  once, 
if  we  may  believe  the  dimmer  facts  of  history,  crowned 
with  magnificent  empires  and  flashing  cities  and  great 
temples,  now  covered  with  mute  ruins,  and  trampled 
over  by  half-ravages,  the  destiny  of  Southern  civiliza 
tion  is  to  be  consummated  in  a  glory  brighter  even  than 
that  of  old,  the  glory  of  an  empire,  controlling  the 
commerce  of  the  world,  impregnable  in  its  position,  and 
representing  in  its  internal  structure  the  most  harmoni 
ous  of  all  the  systems  of  modern  civilization. 


BLACK    DIAMONDS.  109 

The  magnificent  ruins  of  Thebes, 

u  The  world's  great  Empress  on  the  Egyptian  plain,'' 

or  the  snow-white  ruins  of  the  ancient  city  of  Palmyra, 
standing  in  the  yellow  sand  of  the  desert,  are  well  ac 
counted  to  be  sublime.  But  standing  in  the  deep  shade 

•  . 

and  hush  of  the  tropical  forests  of  America,  are  similar 
monuments  of  sublimity,  around  which,  too,  we  can  hear 
voices  calling  to  us  out  of  the  gathered  gloom  of  time. 
In  the  darkness  and  tangles  of  the  forest,  stand  the  ruins 
of  immense  cities  and  the  splendid  monuments  of  a 
strange  religion.  And  it  is  to  these  magnificent  fields  of 
romance  that  the  manifest  destiny  of  the  South  invites  us. 
It  is  to  rebuild  these  ancient  cities,  to  emulate  this  ancient 
magnificence,  and  to  found  anew  the  empire  of  tropical 
America,  that  our  posterity  may  be  called. 

Ever  since  its  first  discovery,  the  Great  American 
Isthmus,  connecting  the  two  large  table  lands  of  North 
and  South  America  has  attracted  the  regards  of  the 
world.  It  has  particularly  excited  the  jealous  and 
grasping  spirit  of  England.  And  it  has  been  in  the 
contest  for  the  control  of  its  transits,  that  she  has 
founded  an  impostured  dominion  in  Central  America  ; 
has  uniformly  thwarted  the  progress  of  American  inter 
ests  in  that  quarter  ;  and  has,  under  the  disguise  of 
concessions,  sought  to  prevail  upon  our  government  to 
renounce  all  dominion,  at  any  time,  in  a  country  marked 
for  our  inheritance  in  the  fufure. 


3.10 


BLACK    DIAMONDS. 


Treacherously,  has  England  struggled  for  the  mastery 
in  this  country.  Persistently  "has  she  wronged  our  gov 
ernment  by  the  arts  and  anfractuous  cunning  of  her 
diplomacy.  But — believe  it,  dear  friend — this  cannot 
continue.  The  day  approaches,  when  the  American 
people  will  take  this  subject  out  of  the  hands  of 'diplo 
macy.  The  signs  of  this  approaching  day  are  gather 
ing.  A  glorious  emblem  is  in  the  skies.  It  is  that  of 
the  eagle  and  the  serpent ;  the  eagle  stooping  and  snatch 
ing  from  the  earth  a  glittering  serpent,  and,  as  the 
glorious  bird  sweeps  onward  and  upward  with  his  loud 
scream  of  exultation,  he  is  seen  to  tear  it  in  pieces  with 
his  talons,  and  the  glittering  scales  are  falling  in  the 
sunshine. 

What  is  the  "  Monroe  Doctrine  " — the  doctrine  that 
the  American  continents  are  "  not  to  be  considered  as 
subject  for  future  colonization  by  any  European  powers?" 
What  is  this  but  the  honored  language  of  self-protecting 
and  progressive  American  liberty  ? 

The  object,  as  well  as  intention,  of  the  enforcement 
of  the  Monroe  doctrine  in  Central  America,  would  be 
but  the  legitimate  one  of  a  reversion  of  that  country  to 
its  natural  destiny.  We  are  sworn,  by  a  solemn  decla 
ration  of  policy,  and  by  the  eternal  oath  of  American 
liberty,  to  protect  the  fulfilment  of  that  destiny  against 
foreign  disturbance  ;  and  if  the  fact  be  that  such  des 
tiny  left  free  points  to  our*  advantage,  it  only  fortifies  a 
right,  and  recommends  a  duty  by  policy. 


i;i,ACK    DIAMONDS.  Ill 

I  do  not,  my  dear  C.,  speak  of  the  political  fate  of 
Central  America  in  the  absurd  sense,  and  with  the  supine 
satisfaction  of  the  fatalist ;  but  as  a  history  of  the 
future,  capable  of  a  degree  of  certainty,  and  resolving 
itself  into  a  destiny  which  is  morally  manifest — one 
made  manifest  by  a  history  of  disorder  and  crime,  and 
assured  by  the  curse  of  fratricidal  blood  ! 

One  step  toward  the  accomplishment  of  this  destiny  ; 
one  advance  toward  the  rearing  of  that  great  Southern 
Empire,  whose  seat  is  eventually  to  be  in  Central  Amer- 
rica,  and  whose  boundaries  are  to  enclose  the  Gulf  of 
Mexico,  was  the  memorable  expedition  of  William 
Walker  to  Nicaragua,  invited  there  by  one  of  its  revolu 
tionary  chiefs. 

The  objects  of  that  expedition,  my  dear  C.,  were  for  a 
long  time  extensively  misunderstood.  They  are  now 
being  apprehended  by  the  Northern  people  ;  they  were 
long  ago  appreciated  by  the  people  of  the  South.  It 
was  to  found  in  a  glorious  land  of  promise  the  institu 
tions  of  the  South,  to  extend  them  to  other  inviting 
countries  of  Spanish  America,  and,  on  the  doubly  secured 
foundation  of  these  institutions,  and  of  military  ideas 
of  government,  to  build  up  the  great  tropical  empire  of 
America. 

This  great  idea,  I  have  reason  to  believe,  was  con 
ceived  in  its  fulness  by  William  Walker.  Regardless 
of  the  clamors  of  the  world,  he  pursued,  in  reserve, 


112  BLACK    DIAMONDS. 

though  with  a  burning  spirit,  the  single  object  to  which 
he  devoted  fortune,  life,  and  honor.  And  while  that 
world  was  regarding  his  expedition  as  a  short-sighted 
and  rapacious  conquest,  a  mere  raid,  a  vulgar  seizure 
of  a  nation's  territory,  he,  in  secret,  had  undertaken  one 
of  the  grandest  schemes  ever  set  a-foot  in  the  Western 
world.  ^ 

Crushed  may  be  all  the  aspirations  of  one  individual. 
But  the  idea  of  empire  conceived  by  an  unfortunate 
leader  can  never  die  from  the  hearts  of  the  South.  Ever 
perpetuated,  and  ever  living,  it  will  seek  its  accomplish 
ment  on  and  on,  perseveringly,  and  at  the  last  irre 
sistibly.  This,  dear  C.,  is  a  serious,  truth ;  and  the 
American  peopfle,  of  all  sections,  of  all  countries,  and 
of  both  continents,  might  as  well  accept  the  manifest 
destiny  of  a  great,  slave  Southern  empire  in  the  tropics 
of  the  Western  hemisphere. 

We  have  the  strange,  prophetic  words  of  Walker  him 
self,  when  surrounded  by  his  enemies,  indicating  the 
end,  and  prompting  the  Southern  heart  to  its  consum 
mation.  These  words,  dear  C.,  I  recite  as  those  of  a 
man,  who,  whatever  the  errors  of  his  head,  was  yet  a 
hero  in  his  heart. 

"  In  such  a  war  as  they  are  now  waging  against  us, 
there  can  be  but  one  result.  They  may  destroy  my 
whole  force — a  circumstance  I  deem  almost  or  quite 
impossible ;  they  may  kill  every  American  now  in 


BLACK    DIAMONDS.  113 

0 

Nicaragua  ;  but  the  seed  is  sown,  and  not  all  the  forces 
of  Spanish  America  can  prevent  the  fruit  from  coming 
to  maturity  The  more  savage  the  nature  of  the  war 
they  wage  against  us,  the  more  certain  the  result,  the 
more  terrible  the  consequences.  I  may  not  live  to  see 
the  end,  but  I  feel  that  my  countrymen  will  not  permit 
the  result  to  be  doubtful.  I  know  that  the  honor  and 
the  interests  of  the  great  country,  which,  despite  of  the 
foreign  service  I  am  engaged  in,  I  still  love  to  call  my 
own,  are  involved  in  the  present  struggle.  That  honor 
must  be  preserved  inviolate,  and  those  interests  must 
be  jealously  maintained.  Nothing  but  our  own  sense 
of  the  justice  of  the  cause  we  are  engaged  in,  and  of 
its  importance  to  the  country  of  our  birth,  has  enabled 
us  to  struggle  on  as  far  as  we  have  done.  We  may 
perish  in  the  work  we  have  undertaken,  and  our  cause 
may  be  for  a  time  lost ;  but  if  we  fall,  we  feel  it  is  in 
the  path  of  honor.  And  what  is  life,  or  what  is  success, 
in  comparison  with  the  consciousness  of  having  per 
formed  a  duty,  and  of  having  co-operated,  no  matter 
how  slightly,  in  the  cause  of  improvement  and  progress !" 

Beautiful,  glorious  words ! 

They  are  the  words  of  Southern  heroism — uttered  by 
a  hero,  and  uttered  by  him  when  the  storm  was  beat 
ing  darkest  around  the  pathway  he  was  then  treading, 
and  where  his  countrymen  will  seek  his  footsteps  among 
the  blood  stains  of  the  battle-field. 


114  BLACK     DIAMONDS. 

The  explanations  contained  in  the  quotation  I  have 
made,  dear  C.,  confirm  and  enlighten  the  assertion,  that 
filibusterism  or  rapacity  was  not  the  original  spirit  of 
the  Walker  expedition.  It  was  not  to  be  supposed  that 
the  Americans  would  shed  their  blood  in  a  foreign  cause 
for  naught ;  they  expected  to  acquire  certain  interests 
in  Nicaragua,  and  a  weight  in  the  government  ;  and 
they  might  have  hoped  that,  in  time,  their  civilization 
and  industry,  would  win  a  peaceful  and  natural  triumph 
over  native  imbecility,  and  change  the  destiny  of  the 
country.  Such  expectations  and  hopes  were  perfectly 
legitimate  ;  but  the  result  is  hastening.  The  fickleness, 
the  jealousy,  the  treachery,  and  the  revolutionary  spirit 
of  the  Central  American  people,  that  deny  our  country 
men  the  honors  and  rewards  of  a  foreign  service,  and 
that  would  expel  them  from  a  country  they  have  rescued 
from  an  internecine  war,  and  baptized  in  their  own 
blood,  as  saved  for  a  higher  destiny,  can  but  tend  to 
provoke  and  offer  opportunities  of  just  revenge  to  a  spirit 
—call  it  filibustering  if  you  will — not  easily  pacified, 
but  active,  invasive,  persevering,  and  eventually  to  tri 
umph,  wherever  it  carries  the  Southern  civilization  and 
arms. 

Turn  we,  for  a  moment,  dear  C.,  to  the  concluding 
*  portion  of  the  thrilling  language  of  soul-greatness  that 
I  have  just  quoted.  How  noble,  heroic,  and  transcend 
ental  the  sentiment  that  can  hold  life  and  personal  sue- 


HLACK    DIAMONDS.  115 

cess  in  such  little  estimation !  How  eloquent,  indeed, 
of  that  high  and  ravishing  enthusiasm,  which  impels, 
animates,  and  sustains,  the  noble  and  chivalrous  leaders 
of  progress  everywhere — which  is  superior  to  success  ; 
which  is  nobly  careless  of  human  criticism  ;  and  which 
is  its  own  reward,  whether  it  leave  its  memorial  of 
greatness  in  the  splendid  monuments  of  fortune,  or  in 
the  nameless  grave  of  self-devotion. 

Truly  yours, 

E.  A.  P. 

To  D.  M.  C.,  Esq.,  New-York 


LETTER    XI. 

GREEN  MOUNTAIN,  VA.,  1858. 

MY  DEAR  C. :  You  have  repeatedly  rallied  me  on  the 
evidences  of  my  sympathy  with  some  of  the  supersti 
tions  of  the  negro.  You  tempt  me,  in  addition  to  the 
particular  subject  of  our  correspondence,  to  devote  a  few 
pages  to  the  great  subject,  in  which  white  nature  and 
black  nature  are  both  interested — that  of  superstition. 
I  propose  to  do  so  by  telling  you 

A  CHRISTIAN  GHOST  STORY. 

I  am  intensely  superstitious.  It  is  one  of  the  sweet 
est  consolations  of  my  life  to  think  that  those  who 
have  perished  from  the  earth  may  still  sttmd  about 


116  BLACK    DIAMONDS. 

me — to  think  that  they  may  watch  over  me  in  the 
darkened  hour  of  contrition — to  feel,  when  night  gathers 
around  me  in  the  lonely  chamber,  that  I  can  almost 
streich  forth  my  hand  in  the  darkness  to  touch  the 
features  of  the  precious  dead.  The  derisions  of  the 
world — the  scoffing  of  the  foolish-wise — the  rebukes  of 
the  cold,  dreary  men  of  Grod,  who  measure  the  future 
state  of  the  soul  by  rules,  and  brand  with  their  contempt 
the  tender  and  precious  superstitions  that  God  has  given 
us,  shall  not  cheat  me  of  my  consolation.  There  is  a 
superstition  above  the  vulgar  standard  of  science. 
There  is  a  superstition  founded  on  the  mystery  of 
nature,  transcendental,  tender,  and  altogether  lovely — 
looking  from  earth  to  the  beautiful  sky  of  heaven,  its 
silver  stars,  and  the  long,  long  homes  in  our  Father's 
house. 

I  do  not  know,  my  dear  C.,  whether,  in  the  desultory 
recitations  of  my  boyish  life  among  the  loved  ones  of  the 
South,  I  have  ever  told  you  of  the  bright  little  sister  so 
loved  by  all  -the  negroes,  and  so  petted  by  the  old,  black 
ones,  who  claimed  her  as  their  darling  mistress.  She 
was  the  light  and  the  joy  of  them  all.  She  cheered 
the  dark  lot  of  the  poor  slaves,  by  exhibiting  to  them 
her  own  innocent  happiness,  by  reading  them  the  con 
solations  of  the  Bible,  by  the  ministrations  of  an  angel 
Oh,  there  is  no  blasphemy  in  calling  an  angel  of  the 
earth  hep,  whose  youth  and  innocence,  and  gentle 


BLACK  DIAMONDS.  117 

beauty  came  to  brighten  our  dark  home  on  the  mountain 
like  golden  sunshine  falling  from  a  parted  cloud. 

But  the  angel  on  the  earth  had  become  an  angel  in 
heaven.  Sweet  Rosalie  had  died  in  her  youth.  Ah,  how 
I  remember  the  burial  that  so  solemnly  closed  her  forever 
from  my  human  eyes !  The  gentle  limbs  of  the  precious 
dead  were  laid  in  the  earth,  when  it  was  smiling  with 
light  and  verdure,  when  the  lambs  were  bleating  in  the 
meadow,  and  when  Spring  was  hastening  with  its 
reviving  kiss  for  nature,  but  its  sweetest  showers  of 
tears  in  vain  for  the  flower  that  had  been  plucked.  It 
is  needless  to  tell  of  the  force  of  my  affliction  :  that 
sorrow,  at  least  is  sacred.  But  year  by  year,  my  grief 
grew  less  and  my  love  the  more. 

It  was  in  the  days  of  my  mourning  that  I  first  began 
to  take  into  my  heart  those  tender  superstitions,  that 
make  the  negro's  religion,  to  my  consciousness,  to  my 
soul,  a  truer  religion  than  that  preached  from  the  thousand 
pulpits  of  the  land.  The  old  negroes  told  me  of  appari 
tions  of  "  their  sweet  chile,"  as  they  named  my  angel 
Rosalie,  of  seeing  her  in  heaven,  of  meeting  her  spirit 
among  the  lonely  trees  at  midnight.  And  I  believed 
them  all.  I  would  steal  away  from  the  observation  of 
the  white  family,  to  listen  with  passionate  and  thrilling 
interest  to  the  stories  of  dear  Aunt  Matilda,  who  told  me 
how  my  little  sister  appeared  to  her  in  visions  of  the  night, 
with  the  angel-children  of  the  Redeemer — arid  how  they 


118  BLACK  DIAMONDS. 

rode  through  the  air  singing  songs — and  how  the  spirit  of 
her  young  mistress  had  told  her,  that  the  brightest  place 
in  heaven  was  not  for  little  children,  hut  for  "  the  long 
time  mourner."  And  then  she  would  chant  some  of  her 
curious  hymns.  In  what  a  fervent  and  beseeching 
manner  she  would  sing  some  lines,  which  I  cannot  now 
clearly  recollect,  but  the  repeated  prayer  of  which 
was  : 

"  Swing  low  chariot  !    Pray  just  let  me  in  ! 

For  I  don't  want  to  stay  behind. 
Swing  low  chariot !     Pray  just  let  me  in  ! 
For  I  dou't  want  to  stay  here  no  longer." 

And  there  was  another  hymn  of  triumph  and  en 
couragement  : 

"  Another  little  mourner  strike  Zion's  hill! 

And  I  heard  from  heaven  to-day  ; 
Rise,  ma^s'r,  climb  the  hill ! 

For  I  heard  from  heaven  to-day." 

Smile  not,  dear  friend,  at  these  rude  chants  of  the 
poor  negro.  Examine  them  rather  in  your  heart,  and 
say  if  there  is  not  nature's  poetry  in  these  untutored 
images  ;  "  the  chariot  "  of  the  Redeemer's  glory  sweeping 
by,  to  which  the  poor  slave  looks  with  passionate  long 
ing — and  then  the  "  climbing  of  the  hill,"  and  the  word 
of  encouragement  "heard  from  heaven  !" 

It  is  from  the  negro  that  I  have  learned  my  supersti 
tions.  It  is  the  slave  that  has  given  me  these  precious 


BLACK  DIAMONDS.  119 

consolations.  It  is  he  that  has  taught  me  and  persuaded 
me  that  the  spirits  of  those  mourned  as  dead  are  with  me 
still. 

But  to  return  to  the  story  which  I  started  to  tell : 
One  day  Aunt  Matilda  told  me,  as  was  not  unusual, 
that  she  had  a  message  for  me  from  my  angel-sister.  It 
was  a  curious  message,  unlike  former  ones  of  love  and 
encouragement,  The  old  woman  delivered  it  with  an 
ominous  look,  refusing  to  explain  by  a  single  word  its 
meaning,  which  was  hidden  to  my  boyish  sense,  and 
yet  awful  in  its  impression.  It  was,  that  "she  was 
coming"  for  me"  Coming  for  me !  What  did  it  mean ? 
Should  I  indeed  see  again  my  precious  little  sister,  as 
the  old  slave  had  described  her,  with  her  golden  locks 
clothing  her  in  glittering  beauty,  and  with  "  silver  slip 
pers  on  her  feet !"  For  a  long  time  my  imagination 
dwelt  upon  the  promise.  « 

And  now,  dear  friend,  believe  me — oh,  do  not  mock  me, 
but  believe  me — when  I  tell  you  solemnly,  and  speaking 
from  all  the  heart  can  feel  of  truth,  that  the  promise  has 
been  kept ! 

Many,  many  years  after  the  message  had  been  given 
me  by  Aunt  Matilda,  when  I  had  grown  up  to  man 
hood,  and  entered  upon  its  serious  years,  I  was  taken 
down  by  a  memorable  sickness.  It  was  a  long,  weary 
sickness,  to  which  my  memory  reverts  with  a  shudder. 
I  had  lain  for  many  weeks  in  a  slow  fever,  and  was 


120  BLACK    DIAMONDS. 

reduced  to  a  very  critical  state  of  weakness.  Every 
thing  was  kept  still  and  solemn  about  my  room. 

One  night,  I  was  lying  in  restless,  broken  reveries. 
The  lights,  which  had  been  withdrawn  by  my  nurse  into 
an  adjoining  room,  left  mine  in  an  indistinct  gloom,  a 
darkness  filled  with  shadows.  I  was  in  an  uncertain 
state,  neither  asleep  nor  awake  ;  but  in  an  indescribable 
sort  of  stupor.  Suddenly,  I  felt  myself  curiously  fail 
ing.  I  can  describe  my  sensation  only  as  that  of  a 
sinking,  like  the  running  down  of  mechanism  ;  my 
mind  falling  away  into  a  sort  of  lightness,  then  with 
unutterable  terror  grasping  at  consciousness,  and  then 
falling  away  deeper  and  deeper  into  the  vagueness. 
I  felt  that  I  was  dying.  But  I  had  no  strength  to  call 
out.  Further  and  further,  I  felt  falling  away,  still 
grasping,  clutching  at  consciousness,  oh !  with  what 
inconceivable  agony.  One  terrible  effort — one  more 
wrestle  of  agony,  and  I  felt  a  sudden,  boundless  free 
dom,  a  sense  of  .an  unutterable  expanse  around  me — an 
aerial  ness  that  human  words  cannot  express.  I  was  still 
in  my  chamber,  but  I  seemed  to  touch  nothing  ;  I  felt 
an  irrepressible  lightness,  and  yet  I  was  so  keenly  con 
scious,  that  I  could  hear  sounds  that  seemed  to  be  far 
away  over  the  hills,  and  floating  up  to  the  skies. 

A  slight  rustle  by  my  side  attracted  me.  I  turned 
my  eyes.  Merciful  Grod  !  it  was  my  angel,  Rosalie, 
who  stood  the^-e.  Father  in  Heaven,  it  was  thy  mes 
senger.  There  she  stood  in  the  darkened  room,  with  a 


BLACK    DIAMONDS.  121 

countenance  as  white  and  calm  as  death,  no  earthly 
beauty  there,  no  smiles,  but  white,  white,  and  yet  a 
thousand  times  beautiful  in  the  deep,  passionless,  Heaven- 
sealed  peace  of  (rod's  beloved.  I  could  not  speak  to  my 
darling.  An  awful  restraint  was  upon  me  ;  and  when 
she  beckoned  to  me,  I  followed,  as  if  on  air.  All  things 
seemed  dissolving  from  me  ;  the  earth  appeared  to  be 
falling  away  into  shadows.  I  felt  as  if  encompassed  by 
darkness,  and  treading  through  it  to  an  illimitable 
Beyond. 

Oh,  the  darkness  is  breaking  at  last !  The  angel 
form  before  me,  never  turning  as  I  have  followed,  is 
now  growing  brighter  and  more  glorious.  I  see  the 
great  white  radiance,  to  which  her  path  leads  up  through 
the  darkness.  Oh,  Gracious  Father,  is  this  the  home 
of  thy  beloved  !  I  see  dimly  as  through  a  glass.  But 
amid  myriads  of  figures  peopling  this  everlasting  light, 
where  no  shadow  ever  falls,  and  no  storms,  no  rent  ban 
ners  in  the  sky,  or  wars,  or  "  garments  rolled  in  blood," 
are  ever  known — amid  them  all,  I  distinguish  white 
figures  advancing  to  meet  me  Who  comes  on  in  the 
the  bright  raiment  of  glory  so  swiftly  and  happily  ?  Who 
is  she  with  the  everlasting  seal  of  peace  upon  her  brow 
that  comes  to  meet  me  ?  Saviour,  sweet  Saviour,  will 
you  grant  me  this  reunion  also  ! — for  it  is  my  mother 
that  comes,  it  is  my  mother,  reaching  out  her  hands  to 
the  son  that  was  lust ! 

1  am  standing  on  the  confines  of  darkness,  with  one 


122  BLACK    DIAMONDS. 

step  from  it  into  unutterable  happiness.  My  darling,  my 
angel,  Rosalie,  turns  to  me.  A  smile  of  Heaven  now 
lights  up  her  face ;  a  scarce  repressed  song  seems  to 
tremble  on  her  lips.  She  stretches  her  tiny  hand  toward 
me.  I  seek  to  grasp  it.  But  as  I  touch  it,  she  starts, 
the  whole  scene  rocks  and  falls  before  me  into  nothing 
ness  ;  and  I  hear  the  voice  of  Rosalie  sweetly,  sadly, 
saying,  "Alas,  I  thought  you  were  dead!" 

Was  it  a  dream  you  ask — a  nightmare  broken  and 
changing  into  a  dreamer's  ecstacy.  Call  it  what  you  will, 
let  the  world  use  the  cold  sneering  term  of  "  a  dream  " 
to  conceal  its  ignorance  of  the  mysterious  communings 
of  the  soul,  let  it  congratulate  itself  upon  the  easy  ex 
planations  of  the  wonders  of  Him,  who  worketh  visions  of 
the  night.  But  tho  day  comes,  when  the  u  dream"  of 
life  itself  shall  pass  away,  and  we  shall  stand,  as  I 
solemnly  believe,  in  the  reality  of  what  was  revealed  to 
us  in  the  night,  and  in  the  darkened  hours  of  our  lives 
on  earth. 

No,  my  Rosalie,  not  dead  yet ;  not  ready  yet  to  cross 
into  the  light  everlasting  !  But  struggling  on,  consider 
ing  all  things  of  this  world  lightly,  bearing  its  insults 
and  its  goads,  putting  away  its  quarrels,  looking  up  ever 
to  the  better  day,  suffering,  worn  and  weary,  I  pray  to 
my  Saviour,  that  a  broken  family  may  be  reunited  at 
his  Throne,  and  that  there,  as  on  earth,  my  beloved  and 
I  may  praise  him  together,  Yours  truly,  E.  A.  p. 

To  D.  M.  C.,  Esq..  New- York. 


PPTIIDKI        SM*I**... 


F( 


RETURN  TO  the  circulation  desk  ot  any 
University  of  California  Library 

or  to  the 

NORTHERN  REGIONAL  LIBRARY  FACILITY 
Bldg.  400,  Richmond  Field  Station 
University  of  California 
Richmond,  CA  94804-4698 

ALL  BOOKS  MAY  BE  RECALLED  AFTER  7  DAYS 

•  2-month  loans  may  be  renewed  by  calling 
(510)642-6753 

•  i-year  loans  may  be  recharged  by  bringing 
books  to  NRLF 

•  Renewals  and  recharges  may  be  made  4 
days  prior  to  due  date. 

DUE  AS  STAMPED  BELOW 


SEMTQN/Lf 

HAff  fl  2  1999 


u.  c. 


MAY  2  7  2004 


12,000(11/95) 


Yb  45598 


M32985 


E 


?<* 


THE  UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA  LIBRARY 


